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Mr Chandrasekhar is an MP from the Rajya Sabha
Establishing a doable mouth-watering contest in a state the place it had didn’t 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 Chief Shashi Tharoor for 3 straight phrases.
This would be the first Lok Sabha contest for Mr Chandrasekhar, who’s the Minister of State for Data Know-how and Ability Growth, and is presently an MP from the Rajya Sabha.
The selection of the Union Minister for the Thiruvananthapuram seat is a sign of the BJP’s concentrate on the southern states, the place it had didn’t make a major dent in 2019, successful solely 29 of the 129 seats (130 together with Puducherry). At 25, most of those got here from Karnataka and the remaining from Telangana. Each of these states at the moment are dominated by the Congress.
In an indication of the uphill battle that Mr Chandrasekhar is more likely to face, veteran BJP chief O Rajagopal had heaped reward on Mr Tharoor in January and stated that it could be tough to defeat the Congress chief within the Kerala capital as he has been in a position to “sway the minds of the folks”.
“That’s the reason he has been successful time and again from Thiruvananthapuram. I doubt anybody else will get a possibility to win from there within the close to future,” he had stated, earlier than backtracking a day later.
Having set itself a goal of successful 370 seats by itself within the Lok Sabha polls – up from the 303 it had gained in 2019 – the BJP is trying on the southern states to assist it get to this quantity. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Tamil Nadu and Kerala for a two-day go to simply this week.
At 39, Tamil Nadu sends the fifth-highest variety of MPs to the Lok Sabha, whereas Kerala accounts for 20. The BJP had not gained even a single seat in both of the states in 2019.
Within the listing of 195 names launched by the BJP on Saturday, 12 names have been introduced for Kerala.
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