New Delhi: BJP candidate E. Sreedharan was leading from Kerala’s Palakkad constituency by over 3,000 votes as of 11:45 am, according to the Election Commission.
Popularly known as the ‘Metro Man’ of India, Sreedharan is contesting against incumbent Congress MLA Shafi Parambil and CPM’s C. P. Promod. The constituency went to polls on 6 April, along with the rest of the state.
While Sreedharan had polled 14,499, Parambil was behind with 11,252 votes, followed by Promod with 7,242 votes.
Meanwhile, trends showed that the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) is ahead in 87 constituencies while the United Democratic Front was ahead in 49 constituencies.
Sreedharan created headlines when he joined the BJP in February this year and decided to contest the assembly elections.
In the first week of April, Sreedharan, confident of his victory, decided to open his MLA office well before the election results or even the exit polls.
“I am so confident about the election results that I decided to start the MLA office even before the results come out,” Sreedharan had said.
Sreedharan further said that he would work in the constituency for the rest of his life, claiming that he would win the Palakkad seat by a margin of 15,000 votes.
Sreedharan, an engineer by profession, retired as the chief of Delhi Metro in 2011 and was previously involved in the metro projects in cities of Kochi, Lucknow and Jaipur. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2001 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2008 for his work in building metro projects across cities.
Also read: Kerala BJP requests central leadership to make Sreedharan NDA’s CM candidate
His remarks on love jihad, beef ban
The ‘Metro Man’ has shocked many with his statements on matters like ‘love jihad’ ahead of getting a ticket from the BJP.
“Love jihad, yes, I see what’s happened in Kerala. How Hindus are being tricked in a marriage and how they suffer… not only Hindus, Muslims, the Christian girls are being tricked in a marriage. Now that sort of thing I certainly will oppose,” Sreedharan had told NDTV in an interview in February.
On the issue of beef ban, Sreedharan had said he is a strict vegetarian and that he “doesn’t like anybody eating meat”.
In an interview to ThePrint in February, Sreedharan had made claims about “mischievous activism”, referring to the arrest of 21-year-old Disha Ravi in Bengaluru in a sedition case for sharing a toolkit with global environmental activist Greta Thunberg.
“I would say it spoils the image of the country. It should be tackled immediately. I am not saying put them behind bars, but those who damage the reputation of the country (before) the rest of the world should be certainly pulled up,” Sreedharan had said.
In 2019, Sreedharan had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking him not to agree to the AAP-led Delhi government’s proposal to make metro travel free for women commuters, saying it would hinder loan repayments that the metro has to make.
(Edited by Debalina Dey)
Also read: Union minister Muraleedharan flip-flops over Sreedharan as BJP’s CM candidate in Kerala