"I don't think , BJP going to win a single seat in Kerala: Shashi Tharoor

THRISSUR: On the day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in Thiruvananthapuram, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday said he doubts whether the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will win even a single seat in Kerala. "I don't think the BJP is going to win a single seat in Kerala. Their strongest performance has always been in Thiruvananthapuram... I am not expecting that they will be anything better than that this time around either. Everywhere else, we have strong candidates," Tharoor said speaking to ANI.

The senior Congress leader said that the BJP does not have a strong support base in Kerala and their kind of message does not augur well for the voters in the state. "I think the BJP's support base is limited in our state. Their kind of appeal is based on Hindutva, Hindi, Hindu and Hindustan- their kind of message does not fly very well here in Kerala," Tharoor said.

On the Communist Party of India (CPI) fielding Annie Raja, the wife of CPI General Secretary D Raja from Wayanad, from where Rahul Gandhi is the sitting MP, Tharoor said that it is good for democracy since she is a worthy candidate.

"I know Annie Raja. She is a respectable lady and a very well-qualified person to speak for the people and so are the other candidates. I think a good thing for democracy is when the voters have a choice and they have the opportunity to weigh and balance who should be their best representative in Parliament to speak for them and raise the issues that matter," Tharoor said.

Speaking about the first list of four candidates fielded by the CPI in Kerala, the senior Congress MP said that he is not "particularly alarmed" as the Congress had won in all those four constituencies in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

"Last time, we had CPI candidates in four of those constituencies and we ended up winning all of them. I am not particularly alarmed. But it is very good to see good people being put forward," Tharoor said. Speaking on Pannian Raveendran, the CPI candidate from Thiruvananthapuram from where Shashi Tharoor is the sitting MP, he said, "I dont think Pannian Raveendran had the kind of record that would have made him a worthy candidate for reelection. In 2019, the party put forward another candidate against me, not him."

"Now that they have put him forward again, I think he will have to explain to the electorate what he would do differently. To my mind, he is a good person. I have met him many times and I will be very happy to have a fair contest against him and whoever the other parties put up," he added. Speaking about Thrissur, where Congress has TN Prathapan as the sitting MP, Tharoor said, "I think Thrissur is going to be an important fight. Where all three parties have strong candidates, the public has a good choice."

Heaping praise on Prathapan, who has started a 14-day long padayatra in his constituency, Tharoor said, "On one hand, they have an MP who has done them very good service for the past five years, worked hard, spoken for the party. Even today, I inaugurated a padayatra by him...He is taking a march through his constituency over 14 days."

While the BJP did not manage to win any seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in Kerala, the Congress swept the state, winning 15 out of 20 seats. The Indian Muslim League won two, CPI the Revolutionary Socialist Party one and the Kerala Congress(M) won one seat.