BJP is irrelevant in Thiruvananthapuram, main fight is between Left and Congress: LDF candidate Pannyan Raveendran

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], March 9 (ANI): Pannyan Raveendran, Left Democratic Front's Lok Sabha candidate from the Thiruvananthapuram constituency, said that the main fight in the constituency is between the LDF and the Congress-led UDF.
"The main contest is between LDF and UDF. BJP is irrelevant in Thiruvananthapuram," Pannyan Raveendran who won the constituency in 2005 told ANI.
Many observers belive that it will be a three-cornered fight in the Thiruvananthapuram constituency in the upcoming Lok Sabha election with Congress, BJP, and CPI fielding strong candidates.
Congress's Shashi Tharoor won the constituency in the last three elections consecutively.
Union Minister Rajeev Chandraskhekar has been fielded against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor from Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram, which is being considered significant as BJP in the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 drew a blank in Kerala.
Soon after the BJP's announcement of his candidature from Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram constituency for the Lok Sabha polls, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar on Saturday said that he was honoured and happy.
"I'm very honoured and excited. After 18 years of public life and serving in Rajya Sabha, this is the first opportunity that I have got to contest in the Lok Sabha. The Prime Minister, the Home Minister and our party president have chosen to field me as their candidate in the capital of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram the state I belong to, the state my family belongs to," Chandrashekhar told ANI.
"This is the campaign I look forward to, the campaign I will start very shortly. I will confront the vital issues of the people of Trivandrum," he added.
Pannyan Raveendran also feels that the BJP-ruled Central government's "withholding" of funds to Kerala will have a negative consequence for the BJP.
" The Centre financially squeezes Kerala by withholding funds and imposing economic sanctions. It is highly detrimental to Kerala. The Centre treats Kerala as an enemy country," Raveendran said.
Congress, however, is not taking a stand against this Centre's "injustice" to the state, he alleged.
He also criticized Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for contesting again from Wayanad where the main fight is between the Left and Congress, both the constituents of the opposition INDIA alliance.
"Rahul Gandhi came back to Wayanad because he couldn't find any other constituency where he could be sure of winning. Rahul Gandhi has these kinds of immature approaches to many things," he said.
"Congress is contesting in 17 seats in Uttar Pradesh. But Rahul Gandhi, who seemed to have gained some political strength after his Bharat Jodo Yatra, is now returning to Wayanad to contest," Raveendran said.
He also said that senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister K Karunakaran's daughter Padmaja Venugopal's joining the BJP has no political consequence.
"The arrival of Padmaja Venugopal does not benefit the BJP. BJP does not get a single seat in Kerala," Raveendran said. (ANI)