Tharoor registers hatrick victory

Former Union Minister and Congress sitting MP, Shashi Tharoor won the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat, which witnessed a tight contest between the ruling LDF, Opposition UDF and the BJP, by a margin of nearly one lakh votes.

With this, Tharoor scored a hat-trick victory from the prestigious constituency.

In a tight rope race, Tharoor managed to defeat his main rival and BJP-NDA candidate Kummanam Rajashekharan by a margin of nearly one lakh votes.

Ruling LDF's candidate and CPI MLA, C Divakaran could secure only 2.58 lakh votes.

The former UN diplomat managed to secure the same margin he had recorded in his debut contest from the constituency in 2009.

However, Tharoor had a narrow escape in 2014 where he could garner only a margin of over 14,000 votes.

The battle in the constituency hogged national limelight as political observers had predicted that Sabarimala women entry issue was likely to reflect in the outcome in favour of BJP, which had fielded Kummanam Rajashekharan to take on the authour-turned politician.

Rajashekharan had resigned as Mizoram Governor to take the electoral plunge.

It was one of the few constituencies in the state where the saffron party had pinned its hope high to open its maiden Lok Sabha account from the state.

Many exit polls had predicted that Tharoor would taste defeat in his third stint to the lower house.