Thiruvananthapuram Election Result: Rajeev Chandrasekhar concedes defeat to Tharoor

After trailing by over 20,000 votes behind BJP candidate Rajeev Chandrasekhar in the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat, Congress' Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday regained the lead with a margin of over 15,000 votes. During the initial hours of counting, the fight between Chandrasekhar and Tharoor was neck-and-neck with each taking a lead of a few thousand votes.

BJP candidate Rajeev Chandrasekhar has conceded defeat to Tharoor, but said that the election result in Kerala indicates that people are increasingly supporting the saffron party. Chandrasekhar, who is the Union Minister of State for Information Technology in the outgoing cabinet, said that it was "disappointing" that he lost, even though the BJP fought a very strong battle in the state.

"We have come very close and have set a record margin and vote share. It shows that people of Kerala are increasingly supporting the BJP. It is disappointing that I couldn't win today, but fought a clean campaign. We didn't use divisiveness like our opposition. Growth of BJP in Kerala is completely expected and will continue," he said.