Shashi Tharoor EXCLUSIVE! Battle for Thiruvananthapuram three-sided; BJP has upper hand over CPI at number 2

Congress MP and UDF candidate Shashi Tharoor explained why the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has the upper hand in Thiruvananthapuram after the Congress party. According to him, the BJP was in second place in the previous Lok Sabha elections and the momentum continues to do so.

Speaking exclusively to Asianet News, the veteran Congress leader said, "The CPI was a strong opponent and I retained their seat in 2009. The CPI reached the second spot. Then BJP and BSP's Neelalohithadasan Nadar reached the third spot in 2009. But since 2014, the strong opponent party has been the BJP. They reached the second spot twice. In 2019, there was a gap of 11 per cent between the BJP and the NDA and in third place was the CPI which had a gap of 5 per cent with the BJP. The two parties, BJP and the CPI are fighting for second place. And if I look at the scenario now, the BJP has the upper hand (to reach the second place in Thiruvananthapuram)."

He added, " In the last 3-4 weeks, the CPI's election campaign has not caught fire. Having said that, there can be changes in the last leg of the campaign in the last 15 days before the election."