Giving strong indications that the lotus is set to bloom for the first time in Kerala’s electoral history, BJP candidate O Rajagopal was surging ahead of his Congress rival Shashi Tharoor, sitting MP and Union Minister, in Thiruvananthapuram constituency when two hours were over since the start of counting of votes in the lok Sabha polls.
Mararji Bhavan, BJP’s Kerala headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, reverberated with joy and excitement as Rajagopal kept on increasing his lead. Rajagopal was leading by 10,892 votes over Tharoor when 43 percent of the total polled votes were counted. left’s Independent candidate Bennet Abraham was in a pathetic third place.
In the State, candidates of the Congress-led UDF were leading in ten out of the total seats and lDF candidates were leading in nine and BJP in one. In 2009, the UDF had bagged 16 seats in the State. In Kollam, Marxist turncoat NK Premachandran of the RSP, UDF candidate, was leading over CPI(M)’s MA Baby by over 24,877 votes when 37 percent votes were counted.
In the Muslim league strongholds of Malappuram and Ponnani, its candidates E Ahamed and ET Muhammad Basheer had established convincing leads over their respective rivals. In Chalakkudy, Congress’s national spokesman PC Chacko was trailing behind lDF Independent Innocent, filmstar, by over 1,500 votes.