The Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate in Thiruvananthapuram for the Lok Sabha election, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, is not voting on polling day, April 26. He said he could not transfer his vote from Karnataka’s Bengaluru, where he resides, to Kerala on time.
“My priority is to be here [in Thiruvananthapuram] when the election is happening. I believe this is an election that will create history and it is my duty to represent people. I am sad, and regret that I could not go to Bengaluru to vote where I have been voting for years, but my priority is to be here,” Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, while speaking to reporters during a booth visit on Saturday.
He is fighting Congress leader and three-time incumbent Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor as well as the Communist Party of India leader Pannyan Raveendran. The BJP has never won a Lok Sabha seat from Kerala, which has been ruled by Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Thiruvananthapuram therefore is a keenly watched constituency for its three-way fight. This is also the constituency where the BJP leader O Rajagopal gave a close contest to Shashi Tharoor in the 2014 election and came in second place. In 2019 too, the BJP’s candidate Kummanam Rajasekharan came in second place but Shashi Tharoor won with a margin of nearly one lakh votes. This time around, Pannyan Rajendran who was the MP of Thiruvananthapuram between 2005 and 2009, is also reckoned to give a tight competition.
Regardless of his inability to vote, Rajeev Chandrasekhar prompted residents of Thiruvananthapuram to come out and vote, saying that this was an important election. “People need a change and for the last 10 to 15 years no one has been solving their issues. They want to reject the negative politics that the UDF and the LDF have been practicing for years,” he said.
CPI(M) leader and minister GR Anil criticised Rajeev for not voting despite seeking votes for himself . “This is proof that he does not believe in democracy,” added Anil.