Thiruvananthapuram : Even as the coastal and rural belts of Thiruvananthapuram played the spoilsport for the BJP yet again, the striking performance of Rajeev Chandrasekhar leaves much hope for the BJP. It is not the first time that the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency is giving high hopes for the saffron party till the last minutes and finally turning its back.
On Tuesday, BJP candidate Rajeev Chandrasekhar's lead went up by around 25,000 when the votes polled in the assembly segments within the city were counted. But as the votes of assembly segments in coastal and rural areas were counted Chandrasekhar's margin nosedived and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor had the last laugh with a margin of 16,077.
The scenario was not different in 2014, too, when BJP veteran leader O Rajagopal was in the fray, The BJP camps had even geared up for celebrations as Rajagopal maintained a reasonable lead. But the coastal and rural areas played spoilsport and ensured Tharoor's victory by a margin of 15,470 votes.
The coastal areas are mainly dominated by Latin Catholics as well as Muslim communities. This time, Chandrasekhar had put in a lot of effort to influence the people of the coastal area. He also made interventions when sea erosion hit the coastal areas and also assured to address the long pending woes of this region, especially with regard to safe housing.
However, the open stand taken by the Latin Catholic church leadership against the BJP by citing Manipur violence has foiled BJP's efforts. This time there was also strong consolidation of Muslim votes against the BJP. The Muslim community along the coastal area often backed the grand old party.
"It is a common phenomenon in the coastal area that the church and jamaath leaderships send the signs openly ahead of the polling. Major chunk of the people of the coastal area will go by that only," said a local politician.