Rajeev Chandrashekhar has been fielded from from Thiruvananthapuram by BJP (File)
Union Minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar on Wednesday took a swipe at Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, saying that the grand old party candidate from Thiruvananthapuram for the Lok Sabha elections, is getting a bit "desperate about the anti-BJP vote".
The union minister whom the BJP has named from Thiruvananthapuram, while speaking to the reporters here, said that the candidates fielded against him "are more interested in fighting for the Muslim vote".
"I saw the Congress candidate from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor getting a bit desperate about the anti-BJP vote. He and his INDI partner, the left, have engaged in a fairly planned effort at distorting what the CAA is to scare one community of people in Kerala. This leads me to one conclusion these candidates are more interested in fighting for the Muslim vote than really engaging in what this election is really about..." he said.
He further said that this election is about the 15 years of performance of the sitting MP.
"This election is about the 15 years of performance of the sitting MP from here who expects us to forget and start talking about the CAA and anti-BJP vote. This is also about Congress' 10 years of governance when the people gave them a chance. This election is also about 10 years of the BJP government when the people gave Narendra Modi a chance to serve India..." he added.
While Thiruvananthapuram is all set to witness a tooth-and-nail fight, Shashi Tharoor slammed the CPI for fielding a candidate against him in Thiruvananthapuram and said it will only help the BJP. "In the last two elections, the BJP came second. If the CPI is really so concerned about opposition unity why are they undercutting my vote by running a candidate whose campaigning has been entirely against me? I have not heard the left speak against the BJP; they're speaking against me all the time and trying to take away for example, minority votes," Shashi Tharoor said.
CPI has fielded Pannyan Raveendran from Thiruvananthapuram.
The Lok Sabha elections are scheduled to be held on April 26 in the state.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)