Kummanam Rajasekharan's resignation sets off speculations on

The resignation of Kummanam Rajasekharan as Mizoram Governor has triggered speculations that the senior BJP leader from Kerala may enter the fray in coming Lok Sabha elections from Thiruvananthapuram constituency, held by Sashi Tharoor of Congress.

Though the BJP leadership is yet to announce the candidate list, party sources here said chances are high that Rajasekharan could contest from Thiruvananthapuram, one of the few constituencies on which the saffron party pins high hopes to open its account in Lok Sabha from the state.

A staunch RSS man and former chief of state unit of BJP, Rajasekharan was made the Mizoram Governor in May last year when the crucial Chengannur bypoll was round the corner.

Since then, a section of party workers had been demanding and speculating about the coming back of the senior leader to electoral politics.

If Rajasekharan is chosen for the prestigious Thiruvananthapuram constituency, a fierce triangular contest can be expected between the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) and the BJP.

Though the Congress-led UDF is also yet to announce its candidate list, the sitting member Tharoor is expected to seek a third term from here.

The LDF had already named CPI's sitting MLA, C Divakaran for the seat.

When sought for his reaction on Rajasekharan's possible contest from the constituency, Tharoor said the BJP leader was a good human being, but it was the ideology of the party which the candidate represented mattered.

"As far as I know, he is a good human being. But, not the individual but the ideology of the party which he represents and what kind of India that they envisage is most important. People of the constituency know very well what I have done for them in the last 10 years," he told reporters here.

Divakaran said who would be the rival candidate did not matter for him.

"If Rajasekharan contests from here, its good actually... because we will get a chance to debate with him on the performance of the BJP-led government at the Centre," he said.

BJP state president P S Sreedharan Pillai said as of now he could not confirm whether Rajasekharan would contest the coming polls.

"It is up to our national leadership to announce the candidates. But, his (Rajasekharan) centre of action during the upcoming election will be Thiruvananthapuram," he said adding Rajasekharan's return to the state would give more strength to the party during the time of elections.

Senior BJP leader and the party's sole MLA in the state assembly, O Rajagopal had given a tough fight to Tharoor in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

He had garnered 2,83,226 votes then with Tharoor winning by a margin of little over 15,000 votes.

The BJP has high hopes on Thiruvananthapuram this time especially in view of the Sabarimala issue over which a large number of people, including women, had come out against the LDF government's decision to implement the supreme Court verdict permitting women of menstrual age to offer prayers at the Lord Ayyappa shrine.

President Ram Nath Kovind has accepted the resignation of Rajasekharan as Mizoram Governor, a Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesperson said in New Delhi Friday.