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Thiruvananthapuram Parliamentary Constituency
Largely considered as an urban constituency, Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat has voted in favour of Congress candidates in at least 50% of the Parliamentary elections since 1952. The Grand Old Party hasn't lost the seat in the last three elections thanks to ex-diplomat and noted politician Shashi Tharoor contesting from here since then.
However, in 2024, BJP has fielded MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar in hope of wresting the seat from Congress. Locals have been drawing similarities between Tharoor and Chandrasekhar as both of them haven't risen from lower ranks of their respective parties and are "outsiders" as their birthplace is not in Kerala. Also, both of them have attended colleges in foreign nations.
It is worthy to mention that the Communist Party of India (CPI) has fielded Pannyan Raveendran who was an MP from Thiruvananthapuram from 2005-09. Interestingly, CPI is part of the state's ruling dispensation LDF which won all but one Assembly seat falling in the Thiruvananthapuram Parliamentary constituency in the 2021 Assembly polls. Congress managed to bag only one despite Tharoor being an MP from here since 2009.
BJP has been showing a good showing on this seat for a while now, especially when compared to its performance on other seats of Kerala. The party has attained the runner-up spot in the past two polls from this seat and sees a real chance of winning this seat in the coming elections as Tharoor's winning margin was less than a lakh in 2019. The party has never ever won a LS seat in Kerala and aims to make inroads into the state by winning Thiruvananthapuram in 2024.
According to the 2011 census, Thiruvananthapuram district's population comprises Hindus at 66%, Christians at 19% and Muslims at 14%. According to experts, the fishermen, primarily Christians, residing on the coastal localities of Thiruvananthapuram have been the backbone of Tharoor as the minority population of Kerala has traditionally voted for the Congress-led UDF.
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