Kerala assembly elections: S Sreesanth hopes to bowl BJP to maiden win in Thiruvananthapuram

BJP has taken a major gamble by fielding Sreesanth - one that can either result in high payoff or fail miserably depending on how the voters have read this partnership

Key Contestants: V S Sivakumar (UDF), Antony Raju (LDF - Democratic Kerala Congress), S Sreesanth (BJP)

Sitting MLA: V S Sivakumar (Congress)

1) V S Sivakumar

Strengths:

Minister of Health, Family Welfare and Devaswom. Well known to the voters in Thiruvananthapuram and is making an all out effort this time to retain his seat. He is also listing out several initiatives he took as the Health Minister to impress upon the voters of his administrative experience over his lesser experienced opponents. 

Weakness:

Anti-incumbency is likely to be the biggest factor as he is part of the Oommen Chandy government. 

2) Antony Raju

Strengths:

Antony Raju, earlier part of the Kerala Congress (M), a partner in UDF, crossed over to the LDF and formed the new party ‘Janathipathya Kerala Congress' in March. He is a popular face in the constituency and will attract a lot of voters. 

Weakness:

Switched sides from UDF to LDF very recently. Committed LDF voters may not vote for him as he is likely to be seen as an opportunist who switched sides at the last minute for pure electoral benefits. 

3) S Sreesanth

Strengths:

Sreesanth's popularity is wide, especially among the young voters. Kerala has never had a more stronger cricketer than Sreesanth who has played for the national team and the benefits of that popularity may help the BJP in gaining a lot of votes. He is also banking on PM Modi's development agenda to attract young voters to the party. 

Weakness:

He is considered to be a novice in politics and his reputation for being hot-headed and mercurial may go against him as experienced voters look for stability. His bad boy image off the field due to the spot-fixing allegations in IPL 2013 may also prove to be a big negative in the final analysis. In many ways, for the BJP that has positioned itself as the champion of cleaning politics of corruption, the selection of Sreesanth may prove to be a tricky gamble - one that can either result in high payoff or fail miserably depending on how the voters have read this partnership. 

Likely result: This will be a close fight, difficult to predict.