The BJP has never won a Lok Sabha seat in Kerala (File)

In a tough battle with sitting Congress MP Shashi Tharoor for the prized Thiruvananthapuram seat, BJP candidate and Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Sunday said the constituency has been deprived of development for the last 15-20 years.

Speaking to ANI on Sunday, the Union Minister said, “Thiruvananthapuram has been denied development and jobs for the last 15-20 years. None of the two MPs (who represented the seat all these years) did anything for the people. The people here are craving for development, change and jobs. The youth want opportunities.”

Rajeev Chandrasekhar faces a stiff challenge from former diplomat and senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who is seeking a third term from the constituency.

The CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) has fielded CPI leader Pannyan Raveendran from the constituency, who won the seat in 2005.

While the BJP has never won a Lok Sabha seat in Kerala, the party registered a victory in the Thiruvananthapuram district just once, with O Rajagopal winning the Nemam assembly seat in 2016.

In the 2019 polls, the BJP’s Kummanam Rajasekharan won 31.3 per cent votes in Thiruvananthapuram, the largest vote share achieved by the party in all 20 Lok Sabha constituencies it contested in the state.

However, with Rajeev Chandrasekhar jumping into the fray this year, the battle for Thiruvananthapuram has turned into a three-cornered one and will be one of the most-watched contests in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)