Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) has secured four of the seven assembly constituencies in former Union minister Shashi Tharoor’s Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency.
In the 2026 Kerala assembly elections, Congress Thiruvananthapuram President N. Sakthan won the Neyyattinkara seat by 6,966 votes, while senior Congress leader K. Muraleedharan won the Vattiyoorkavu assembly constituency in a three-way contest by 5,425 votes. Congress’s incumbent MLA, Advocate M. Vincent, sealed the biggest victory in Kovalam by 32,709 votes. UDF candidate C.P. John from the Communist Marxist Party Kerala State Committee secured the Thiruvananthapuram seat by 9,863 votes.
However, INC’s advocate candidates K.S. Sabarinadhan and T. Sarathchandra Prasad ended up in third position in Nemom and Kazhakkootam, respectively, while Neyyattinkara Sanal ended in second position in Parassala.
In Vattiyoorkavu, Muraleedharan defeated CPI(M)’s incumbent MLA V.K. Prasanth, and BJP’s R. Sreelekha, an ex-DGP. In Neyyattinkara, N. Sakthan, an ex-minister, faced off against K. Ansalan and defeated the CPI(M) leader.
Thiruvananthapuram saw a contest between C.P. John, Left Democratic Front (LDF)’s actor-candidate Sudheer Karamana, and Bharatiya Janata Party’s Karamana Jayan, with John emerging as the winner. In Kovalam, M. Vincent retained the seat, defeating both LDF’s Bhagath Rufus and BJP’s T.N. Suresh.
In Parassala, Sanal crossed swords with CPI(M)’s C.K. Hareendran and Advocate Gireesh Neyyar from the NDA, coming second behind CPI(M)’s Hareendran. In Nemom, Congress leader K.S. Sabarinadhan fell behind Kerala BJP President Rajeev Chandrashekar and CPI(M) Minister V. Sivankutty, with Chandrashekar eventually edging out Sivankutty. In Kazhakkootam, T. Sharathchandra Prasad fell behind BJP’s V. Muraleedharan and Kerala Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran, with the BJP eventually capturing the seat from the CPI(M) by a narrow margin of 428 votes.
Out of the seven assembly constituencies, the UDF, back in 2021, had won only the Kovalam segment.
Tharoor’s LS seat
Though Tharoor is the local MP, the party’s presence in Thiruvananthapuram has been dwindling over the years. This has been attributed to organisational problems as well as a growing BJP vote base.
Congress’s traditional support base—urban middle-class and upper-caste Hindu communities—has increasingly shown interest in the BJP. This resulted in the BJP winning the Nemom assembly seat in 2016 and the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation in 2025.
In 2021, the Congress won only one of the seven assembly segments in the district.
A former UN diplomat, Tharoor, joined the Congress in 2009 and contested the Lok Sabha elections that year, winning from Thiruvananthapuram by a margin of almost one lakh votes. He retained the seat in subsequent elections, but his margin reduced to 16,077 votes in 2024.
Last year, there was a strain in his ties with the party. Tharoor’s alleged deviation from party lines, along with his occasional praise for the Modi government—including Operation Sindoor—had landed him in major controversies. He also remained absent from key Congress meetings and events in Kerala due to the alleged sidelining he faced.
However, the leader met Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge in January this year, after which he has remained active in party events. Tharoor was the most sought-after star campaigner of the UDF in the Kerala polls, covering nearly 59 constituencies across 12 districts, and sometimes, visiting five constituencies in a single day.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
Also Read: From rebel to star campaigner: How Shashi Tharoor found his way back in Congress