THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The fall in voter turnout has become a concern for political parties in Thiruvananthapuram. The polling rate in the high-profile constituency, that witnessed a heated triangular fight, came in at 66.46%, down from 73.37% in previous general election in 2019.
Candidates of the three major fronts exuded confidence that the dip and the last-minute rush at booths in coastal areas worked in their favour. While the NDA’s claims were limited to a “significant share” of coastal votes, the UDF and the LDF say the people who flocked to booths in the last hours voted for them en masse.
All the seven assembly constituencies witnessed a decline in polling compared with the previous general election. Nemom witnessed the steepest fall - down seven percentage points (pp) from 73.32% to 66.05%. The lone BJP MLA in history of the state, O Rajagopal, was elected from this constituency in 2016. Even though BJP lost the seat to CPM’s V Sivankutty in 2021, Nemom is still considered favourably by the NDA.
The segments with the narrowest difference were Thiruvananthapuram (3.48 pp) and Vattiyoorkavu (3.55 pp). The drop in polling in other constituencies were: Kovalam (5.79 pp), Parassala (5.44 pp), Kazhakoottam (5.38 pp) and Neyyattinkara (5.03 pp).
Incumbent Shashi Tharoor, who is looking for a fourth straight term, exuded confidence of winning with a comfortable majority. His only concern was who would come second - NDA’s Rajeev Chandrasekhar or LDF’s Pannian Raveendran. Tharoor’s confidence stems from the fact that the three constituencies where most polling was recorded this time -- Neyyattinkara (70.72%), Parassala (70.60%) and Kovalam (69.815) -- favoured the UDF in the previous election.
The NDA, however, claimed that the candidature of a Union minister has altered previous trends. Its leaders said people consider Rajeev Chandraskehar as a man who is capable of bringing development. His status as a central minister also had an impact, they say. A majority of the urban vote, combined with a significant share from UDF’s coastal bastions would help our candidate win, they added. Senior CPI leader Pannian said he has been successful in plugging cross-voting, which has been a bane for the LDF in previous years. He said voting percentages were low in UDF strongholds while the LDF managed to retain its votes.
