"Why undercut my votes, it will only help BJP": Shashi Tharoor slams CPI for fielding candidate in Thiruvananthapuram

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor slammed the Communist Party of India for fielding Pannian Raveendran from Thiruvananthapuram and said that the move by the left party will only help the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor slammed the Communist Party of India for fielding Pannian Raveendran from Thiruvananthapuram and said that the move by the left party will only help the Bharatiya Janata Party. Speaking to reporters in Thiruvananthapuram, Tharoor said, "In the last two elections, the BJP came second, if they're (CPI) really so concerned about opposition unity why are they undercutting my vote by running a candidate whose campaigning has been entirely against me? I have not heard the left speak against the BJP; they're speaking against me all the time and trying to take away for example, minority votes."

"This is a tactic that can only help the third party, namely the BJP, so I'm asking the CPI, what are you talking about? Why are you doing this here?" he added. Tharoor has been a Lok Sabha member from Thiruvananthapuram for the past 15 years.

Earlier, Pannyan Raveendran, the 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. The BJP is irrelevant in Thiruvananthapuram," Raveendran said.

Notably, CPI and Congress are alliance partners in the opposition's INDIA bloc. Kerala will hold elections in a single phase on April 26. There are 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala and the BJP has never won a parliamentary seat in the state. (ANI)

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