There’s likely to be a poll contest between BJPs Rajeev Chandrasekhar and Congress’ Shashi Tharooe,
(Image: News18)
Chandrasekhar’s parliamentary journey began in 2006. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in May 2006, representing Karnataka
Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar was fielded by the BJP on Saturday as its candidate from Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in a possible poll contest with Congress leader Shashi Tharoor who is a three-time Lok Sabha member of the Congress from the same seat.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday released its first list of 195 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress, however, is yet to release its list of candidates for the general elections that are likely to be conducted in April-May.
Recently, Chandrasekhar, who is among the Union ministers not renominated to the Rajya Sabha told PTI that he is raring to contest his first Lok Sabha polls and looking forward to “an even more exciting phase” in his political career. His current Rajya Sabha term will end on April 2.
The minister of state for skill development and entrepreneurship, and electronics and information technology, Chandrasekhar has worked with global tech giants, such as Intel.
Chandrasekhar’s parliamentary journey began in 2006. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in May 2006, representing Karnataka.
Once a chip designer, he has been a key voice of the Modi government on issues including digitisation, emerging technologies, artificial intelligence (AI) and internet.
One needs to be extremely responsible and a grassroots politician to be a Lok Sabha member and he is ”deeply fortunate” that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP leadership have considered him worthy of it, the technology entrepreneur-turned-politician said.
As per an NDTV report, the BJP’s choice of Chandrasekhar for the Thiruvananthapuram seat is an indication of the saffron party’s focus on the southern states, where it has been unable to make a mark in 2019, winning only 29 of the 129 seats (130 including Puducherry).
The BJP is eyeing at the southern states to help reach their target of winning 370 seats on its own in the Lok Sabha polls – up from the 303 it had won in 2019. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also conducted a two-day visit to Tamil Nadu and Kerala just this week.
In the list of 195 names that were released by the BJP on Saturday, 12 names were announced for Kerala.
(with PTI inputs)
