'Second place in Neyyattinkara, Kovalam; huge lead in Nemom'; Thiruvananthapuram result was pure cinema

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Shashi Tharoor won the Thiruvananthapuram constituency after a roller-coaster ride that saw him trailing for the better part of Tuesday. Tharoor’s fourth win in Thiruvananthapuram became a reality only for the crucial votes from the coastal belt of the southern city. BJP candidate Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who made serious inroads and gave a scare to the congress camp, suffered the defeat only by a slim margin. Tharoor's majority of 99,989 votes in 2019 plummeted to a paltry 16,077 in 2024.

Out of the seven assembly constituencies belonging to the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency, the big contest was only between BJP and Congress while CPI failed to make an impact. The only saving grace for the CPI would be their second-place finish in the Parassala constituency.

In 2019, BJP managed to win just one constituency that was Nemom with veteran leader Kummanam Rajasekharan securing 41.40 per cent votes that day. And now with Rajeev Chandrashekhar as a candidate, BJP upended the total picture of the constituency and made things conducive for the saffron party in three major assembly constituencies like never before.

BJP came first in Nemom, Kazhakootam and Vattiyoorkavu constituencies while Shashi Tharoor managed to eke out a win in the Thiruvananthapuram constituency with a paltry margin of 4541 votes. Along with this, Shashi Tharoor won first position in Parassala, Neyyattinkara and Kovalam constituencies. Rajeev also came second in Kovalam and Neyyattinkara.

Senior CPI leader C. Divakaran secured 2,58,556 votes in 2019, while former MP Pannyan Ravindran secured only 2,44,433 votes this time. The votes received by the three candidates in various constituencies are as follows.

Kazhakoottam

Shashi Tharoor 39,602

Rajeev Chandrasekhar 50,444

Pannyan Raveendran 34,382

Vattiyoorkavu

Shashi Tharoor 44,863

Rajeev Chandrasekhar 53,025

Pannyan Raveendran 28,336

Thiruvananthapuram

Shashi Tharoor 48,296

Rajeev Chandrasekhar 43,755

Pannyan Raveendran 27,076

Nemom

Shashi Tharoor 39,101

Rajeev Chandrasekhar 61,227

Pannyan Raveendran 33,322

Parassala

Shashi Tharoor 59,026

Rajeev Chandrasekhar 45,957

Pannyan Ravindran 46,654

Kovalam

Shashi Tharoor 64,042

Rajeev Chandrasekhar 47,376

Pannyan Ravindran 39,137

Neyyattinkara

Shashi Tharoor 58,749

Rajeev Chandrasekhar 36,136

Pannyan Raveendran 35,526

Total EVM votes

Shashi Tharoor 3,53,679

Rajeev Chandrasekhar 3,37,920

Pannyan Raveendran 2,44,433

Total postal votes Shashi Tharoor 4,476 Rajeev Chandrasekhar 4,158 Pannyan Raveendran 3,215