With the release of the first list by both BJP and Congress for Lok Sabha polls, a tough fight is likely to be witnessed between Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar and three-time Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram.
While the Bharatiya Janata Party released its initial list of 195 candidates om March 3, the Congress on Friday named 39 candidates for the general elections, expected to take place in April-May.
Chandrasekhar, among the Union ministers not seeking re-election to the Rajya Sabha, expressed eagerness to participate in his inaugural Lok Sabha elections, anticipating an invigorating phase in his political journey. His current term in the Rajya Sabha concludes on April 2.
A minister of state overseeing skill development, entrepreneurship, electronics, and information technology, Chandrasekhar boasts a professional background that includes collaboration with global tech giants like Intel.
Chandrasekhar’s parliamentary journey began in 2006. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in May 2006, representing Karnataka.
Once a chip designer, he has been a key voice of the Modi government on issues including digitisation, emerging technologies, artificial intelligence (AI) and internet.
One needs to be extremely responsible and a grassroots politician to be a Lok Sabha member and he is “deeply fortunate” that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP leadership have considered him worthy of it, the technology entrepreneur-turned-politician said.
As per an NDTV report, the BJP’s choice of Chandrasekhar for the Thiruvananthapuram seat is an indication of the saffron party’s focus on the southern states, where it has been unable to make a mark in 2019, winning only 29 of the 129 seats (130 including Puducherry).
On the Congress’ side, Tharoor who is an author and a former international civil servant has been fielded from the Thiruvananthapuram constituency. Currently the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, Tharoor has previously served as Minister of State for Human Resource Development and Minister of State for External Affairs in the Government of India.
He also worked as a peacekeeper, refugee worker, and administrator at the highest level during his nearly three-decade long prior career at the United Nations.
The BJP is eyeing at the southern states to help reach their target of winning 370 seats on its own in the Lok Sabha polls – up from the 303 it had won in 2019. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also conducted a two-day visit to Tamil Nadu and Kerala just this week.
In the list of 195 names that were released by the BJP, 12 names were announced for Kerala and in the list released by Congress 16 names were from Kerala.
(with PTI inputs)
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