In Thiruvananthapuram, Stage Set For Rajeev Chandrasekhar-Shashi Tharoor Contest?

Mr Chandrasekhar will be fighting his first Lok Sabha election while the Congress leader has held the seat since 2009.

Setting up a possible mouth-watering contest in a state where it had failed to win even a single seat in 2019, the BJP has fielded Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar from Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram, a constituency held by senior Congress Leader Shashi Tharoor for three straight terms.

This will be the first Lok Sabha contest for Mr Chandrasekhar, who is the Minister of State for Information Technology and Skill Development, and is currently an MP from the Rajya Sabha.

The choice of the Union Minister for the Thiruvananthapuram seat is an indication of the BJP's focus on the southern states, where it had failed to make a significant dent in 2019, winning only 29 of the 127 seats. At 25, most of these came from Karnataka and the remaining from Telangana. Both of these states are now ruled by the Congress.