Rural segments scale up Shashi Tharoor victory margin in Thiruvananthapuram

Thiruvananthapuram: Massive lead secured by Shashi Tharoor in the rural and coastal constituencies paved the way for his stupendous victory in Thiruvananthapuram LokSabha constituencies. The Congress candidate managed to get a lead of 82000 plus votes in Parassala, Neyyatinkara and Kovalam constituencies alone. In 2014, Tharoor secured a lead of just 44890 in these constituencies. The huge increase in the lead also reflected in his victory margin which surpassed 1 lakh breaking his previous record of 99998, two short for the 1 lakh margin.

In 2014, BJP's O Rajagopal lost to Tharoor by a margin of just 15,470 votes, that is, by 1.64 percent. This time, of the seven Assembly segments that make up the Thiruvananthapuram Parliamentary constituency, Kummanam Rajasekharan could do better than him only in Nemom, which is the BJP's only Assembly seat in the state.

In Kazhakoottam, Vattiyoorkavu, and Thiruvananthapuram Assembly segments where O Rajagopal had won a majority in 2014, he could achieve a slim margin this time. At Kazhakkottam, Shashi Tharoor got 1.12 % more votes than Kummanam Rajashekharan where O Rajagopal won a huge margin of 6.7 percent in 2014 poll. While at Vattiyoorkavu, Shashi Tharoor got a margin of 2.09 % over Kummanam. The biggest lead for Tharoor came from the Assembly segments of Neyyattinkara, Parassala, and Kovalam, Tharoor has a good lead over his rivals.

"I feel like a batsman who has scored a century while his team has lost! It's a bittersweet emotion I will take some time to reflect on," Tharoor tweeted. C Divakaran, the CPI candidate, came third in all of the seven constituencies.