First Nirmala and now Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s name discussed against Tharoor before BJP

Thiruvananthapuram (IANS). Speculation is rife over the BJP’s candidate for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor from the coveted Thiruvananthapuram seat in Kerala.

According to reports, the newest name is Minister of State Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who is Malayali and matches Tharoor in style. Before this, the name of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has also been discussed.

So far Tharoor has completed a hat-trick of victories from his parliamentary constituency. During his debut and in the 2019 elections, his victory margin was less than a lakh votes. He had to struggle in the 2014 elections, but he managed to win by 15,000 votes.

In 2014, his wife Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a Delhi hotel.

Of the 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state, only in Thiruvananthapuram did the BJP come second in 2014 and 2019. In all other constituencies, she finished third.

Due to Tharoor’s charm, he gets a large number of first time voters in the age group of 18 to 22 years. This is where the BJP wants to defeat him and that is why Chandrashekhar’s name has come to the fore.

He is known for his lingo and is tech-savvy, a key criteria for first-time voters.

Of late, Chandrasekhar has been frequently seen in the state and this has triggered speculation that the BJP may be planning to field him in the Thiruvananthapuram constituency.

Another favorable factor that the BJP finds is that the seat is being contested by the CPI, which is the second largest ally of the ruling CPI-M-led Left party.

In the last two elections, the CPI had difficulty in finding a suitable candidate. The Left Democratic Front candidate had to be content with the third position here.

With the BJP national leadership determined to win seats from the South Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, they plan to find a suitable candidate for the Nagercoil Lok Sabha seat in Tamil Nadu, which borders Thiruvananthapuram district.