Kochi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday announced AN Radhakrishan, the party's State Vice President, as its candidate for the upcoming Thrikkakara bypoll.

Radhakrishnan will join Congress' Uma Thomas, the wife of late MLA PT Thomas, and CPM's Dr Jo Joseph, a well-known cardiologist, in what will no doubt be a high-voltage contest.

By fielding Radhakrishnan, BJP hopes to make headways in Thrikkakara where it had always remained the third best. In 2021, it could only manage 11.34 per cent vote share, a drop of 4.36 from 2016. S Saji was the BJP candidate on both occasions.

Congress' PT Thomas won both the 2021 and 2016 elections here by 43.82 and 45.42 per cent vote share respectively despite a strong Left Democratic Front (LDF) wave.  

No doubt, the primarily urban Thrikkakara is a Congress bastion. Since its establishment in 2011, the constituency has seen three elections, all of which were won by the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF).

However, with Twenty20 and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announcing that it will field a joint candidate, and LDF fielding a candidate under its party symbol, a move that it was reluctant to make before, Thrikkakara is slated for a contest that even pundits are unwilling to call early.

What will dictate the contest here is SilverLine, Kerala government's ambitious rail corridor project that cuts through the outskirts of Ernkalam districts for two of its 11 stations.

Both the Congress and the BJP have been at loggerheads with the ruling CPM over the project citing the ecological and economical damages that it will leave in its wake.

Thrikkakara seat was left vacant following the demise of Congress MLA PT Thomas in December last year.

Thrikkakara goes to polls on May 31.