Actor Prakash Raj expressed confidence on Tuesday in Shashi Tharoor, the Congress candidate seeking re-election from the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, stating that he will “emerge victorious once again”.

“I find this (Thiruvananthapuram) constituency has received a lot from Congress leader Shashi Tharoor. It is going to be his term again. I am here to just stand by him, not because he is a great friend of mine, but because he has given me hope, happiness, and joy over the last decade by providing a voice through such a representative of the country,” he said in a conversation with ANI.

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Tharoor faces tough competition from two bigwigs: Union minister of State Rajeev Chandrashekhar and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Pannyan Raveendran.

Thiruvananthapuram has been a Congress stronghold, with former Union minister Shashi Tharoor first emerging victorious in 2009. Tharoor, who has held the seat since then, faces a challenge as the BJP has fielded a strong candidate against him. Chandrasekhar, who has served as the minister of state for Electronics, Entrepreneurship, and Information Technology, is contesting against him.

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Although the CPI-M is part of the INDIA bloc, it has not entered into any seat-sharing agreement with the Congress party in Kerala. The CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) has nominated CPI leader Pannyan Raveendran from the constituency, who previously won the seat in 2005.

All 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala will vote in a single phase on April 26, with counting scheduled for June 4.

In the 2019 elections, the Congress party emerged victorious in 19 out of the 20 seats, while the CPI-M managed to win only one seat. The BJP failed to secure any seats. Despite never having won a Lok Sabha seat in Kerala, the BJP did achieve a victory in the Thiruvananthapuram district once, with O Rajagopal winning the Nemom assembly seat in 2016.