[Interview] "This Is Not New To Me": Rajeev Chandrasekhar On His First Lok Sabha Contest

For Thiruvananthapuram, this election is different. Shashi Tharoor of the Congress is up against another high-profile candidate — BJP’s Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a union minister and entrepreneur with a background in tech.

Tharoor has been elected from the constituency three times, i.e., in 2009, 2014 and 2019. He is now seeking a fourth term.

It is also one of the few seats in Kerala in which the BJP and RSS have had a strong presence. The BJP candidate in 2014, O Rajagopal had come close to defeating Tharoor that year. The difference in their vote shares was just 1.77 per cent. 

This context combined with Chandrasekhar’s profile has made the 2024 contest interesting.

Raveendran, according to a political commentator whom Swarajya spoke to is a 'dyed in the wool' communist who reminds people of the 'parippu vada' (daal vada), 'kattan chaya' (black tea) and 'Dinesh beedi' (a beedi made by Dinesh cooperative) days of the Left and is thus somewhat of an outlier.

The Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat comprises seven assembly segments, of which Kazhakootam, Thiruvananthapuram, Nemom and Vattiyoorkavu are urban and the others — Kovalam, Neyyattinkara, and Parassala are rural.

Except Kovalam, all others were won by the LDF in the 2021 Assembly elections.

My first meeting with Chandrasekhar was after a programme organised on the Kerala economy by his campaign team. It was a short meeting in which I was introduced to him. 

During the programme, Chandrasekhar touched upon the major concerns regarding the Kerala economy such as rising debt, slow growth, high dependence on remittance income, and lack of investments and job opportunities.

Nomination Roadshow

Dr S Jaishankar, the External Affairs minister, S Vijayadharani, a Congress MLA from Tamil Nadu’s Vilavancode who joined the BJP recently, V V Rajesh, the party's Thiruvananthapuram district president, and a number of other leaders from the Kerala unit of the BJP accompanied Chandrasekhar.

Members of alliance partners of the BJP in the state like the Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), and Shiv Sena, and smaller outfits like the SJD and PNP were also present in large numbers.

During the roadshow, Swarajya spoke with a few participants to understand what they thought of Chandrasekhar's candidature and the BJP’s chances of winning the seat. 

Krishna Kumar, a general secretary of a BJP area committee shared: “I believe Rajeev Chandrasekhar has a good chance of winning. What I also see as a local party functionary is that if he wins, the momentum would help us in the forthcoming elections to the municipal corporation as well as the Assembly elections in 2026.”

"While the LDF is in power as it has the majority, i.e., 52 seats out of 100, the BJP is the second largest party. We won 35 wards. The UDF has 10."

Endorsing the view of Kumar, Dr Balarama Kaimal, a professor of Biochemistry in Chennai, who heads Rajeev Chandrasekhar's research team said, "If he wins, the impact would not be just in the Thiruvananthapuram area but across the state. It would enthuse the morale of every BJP worker. Winning an MP seat in Kerala would be a huge achievement. Shashi Tharoor is a very well-known face and the message that would go out is that if the BJP can defeat Tharoor, it could defeat anybody."

A party functionary, who did not wish to be named, stated that the major challenge for Chandrasekhar is in the three rural constituencies.

Why is that? I asked.

"A major part of the population is comprised of Nadars (Hindu and Christian), CSI Christians, Muslims and other OBC groups. Also people here are not as politically aware as in the city. Tharoor receives a lot of support from here.

"While we are doing a lot of work in the rural and semi-urban areas, a strong lead in the four urban seats is important in order to win by a good margin," he added.

Asked about the support from the Nairs and Ezhavas, he said, "There is support from all communities but the fact that the CPI candidate Raveendran and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan are from the Ezhava community could make some of the community votes shift to the LDF in spite of the alliance with the BDJS. (Both Tharoor and Chandrasekhar belong to the Nair community)

"The Nair community had majorly been supporters of the Congress in the past but that has been changing since the time Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister. The Nair Service Society (NSS), however, has not publicly declared support for any candidate."

While a large crowd had gathered to welcome the convoy at the collector's office, only a small number of people were allowed inside.

After the nomination, while Chandrasekhar and Jaishankar left for other programmes, I met the team tasked with running his social media campaign.

"Rajeev Chandrasekhar's image is that of a 'doer' or somebody who believes in the 'politics of performance.' This has especially stuck after his swift actions brought a central team to craft a solution to a major problem faced by the fishing community, i.e., sea erosion. The opposition parties were exploiting the issue to line their pockets every year.

"One of the Malayalam hashtags we have come up in line with that is 'Ini Kaaryam Nadakum' (Now work would happen). The 'Modiyude Guarantee' hashtag has also done well as people have benefitted from the central government's schemes.

"The urban youth is the most disinterested in political drama. They want action. The social media campaign has especially been able to attract them," said a team member.

"Kerala, as you know has a very high literacy rate. But literacy is not enough. Our youth need to be employable. They should have the skills required for the job market.

"Chandrasekhar has promised that in the next 3-4 years, there would be no youth without a skill," she said.

Further, "We are receiving a lot of support from veterans due to his role in pushing for a National War Memorial in New Delhi. He himself is the son of an Airforce officer."

Asked about what more their work entails, the member said, "Apart from social media posts, we also monitor the news to see what are the issues arising in the constituency, what is the opposition speaking about us etc. We respond with facts and figures and provide inputs to the candidate."

This was followed by a stop at the party's campaign office near Bakery junction. Chandrasekhar was expected to arrive there in the afternoon but couldn't make it due to some changes in his schedule.

A party member that Swarajya spoke to said that it would be interesting to see how the coastal community votes this time due to the issue of the Vizhinjam port.

"I see Vizhinjam as a wildcard during this election. The port has faced strong opposition, especially from the Latin Catholic community, but has been supported by all parties, including Shashi Tharoor, whom they have historically supported."

Later that afternoon, I got in touch with Venu Nair, a filmmaker based in the Vattiyoorkavu area of the city to get an idea of what a common citizen feels about the candidates and wants for the city.

"I am happy with the way the campaign of Rajeev Chandrasekhar is going on. One of the things I would want to be addressed is the issue of flooding. From 2018 to 2023, we have seen four or five floods. It was not usual previously."

"The city has a very rich cultural milieu. If the central government wishes, they can definitely make it is a cultural or spiritual hub. There are a lot of temples here.

"We also need some industries and IT companies so that there are more jobs here. A lot of things can be done."

This is the first time that you are contesting the Lok Sabha elections. What is the feeling like?

I have had many experiences in elections. I have managed elections for many friends and been part of state campaigns. So this is not new to me.

Of course, this is new in the sense that I am the candidate but the heat and the dust and all of that is something that I'm used to and I have seen before many many times.

Could you please elaborate on the sea erosion issue?

A large population of people in Thiruvananthapuram belong to the fishing community and depend on fishing for their livelihood. They face multiple issues like the Ockhi cyclone and the rampant erosion of this coastline that has not been addressed at all by the state government, unlike Tamil Nadu where they have contained the sea erosion.

The problem with sea erosion, which may sound like a trivial issue to people who are living in ivory towers, is that once the sea erodes and beaches are lost, it is a death blow to those communities.

Because the moment you lose beaches, you lose your ability to do traditional fishing. You can't launch your boats, you can't fish from the land.

It has devastated tens of thousands of people from the fishing community and this has been going on for the last 7 to 8 years with no response of any sort by anybody either in the state government or their elected member of parliament. 

And when I highlighted this issue four or five days after coming here, all that the existing member of parliament could say was that I had written a number of letters and I had raised a question or two in parliament about the issue.

But there was certainly no solution in sight till I went to the fishing ministry, sat with them, and found solutions. We have proposed both long and short-term solutions.

Is the solution something like a sea wall ?

No, it's not a sea wall. It is about breakwaters that break the intensity of the waves and therefore reduce the erosion of the beaches.

And this is, again, not some great nuclear science. This has been done by Tamil Nadu all across its coastline. And if you look at a Google Map, you will see how in Tamil Nadu the beaches are absolutely intact and fishing communities can continue their livelihoods, while in Kerala they are not able to do the same thing. Just a few metres across the border, the beaches have been lost.

Yesterday at the event organised about Kerala's economy, you were speaking about having cooperatives for fishermen for their livelihood.

I think there has to be much more thinking about both short term solutions for their livelihoods and long-term solutions to their prosperity.

And I think part of the long-term thinking has to be to organise fishermen just like farmers have been organised into Farmer producer organisations, (FPOs) or say Self Help Groups (SHGs) or cooperatives.

This would lead to communities being organised around much more robust, sustainable business models and of course schemes and policies of the Government of India that can support those business models, once those models are built or schemes are built.

Unfortunately, nobody is thinking about this. Nobody has spoken for them, nobody has represented them. And that, I hope, will change with these elections.

What is your take on the Vizhinjam port project?

It is certainly a good project for the city and the district. But many things have to be still done to make that project truly an inclusive and sustainable project. For example, there cannot be anybody who is disadvantaged, whose lands have been lost to the port, who is still is suffering for either compensation or rehabilitation or jobs. That is number one.

Number two, I strongly believe that the fishing community that has been displaced by the port must be given certain types of programmes that will allow their children to participate in much of the modern jobs that the port will create.

The government of India is willing to set up skill centres that will train youngsters, especially from the fishing communities, who are interested in taking up some of the modern jobs in technology, logistics, in tugs, and all of that are associated with a port livelihood.

There has been a lot of talk about BJP's outreach to Christians in Kerala. How has the response been to such outreach?

We are not the Congress or the Left where we focus on reaching out to only one community or two communities. We reach out to every citizen of Thiruvananthapuram because we believe that our message, our ideology of development, of progress, of investments, jobs and skilling is something that is an expectation of every family that lives in Thiruvananthapuram, regardless of whether he or she is of a certain caste or religion or any assembly segment.

Our message is to everybody. My campaign is stopping at churches, mosques, temples as well as colleges and homes of every resident of every community. So there is nothing in our campaign that says that we are reaching to one community and not the other community. We are spreading the message to every community.

What is your vision for the tech sector in Thiruvananthapuram?

Thiruvananthapuram's tech story is a story of unfulfilled potential and unfulfilled promises. It was one of the first cities to recognise the power of tech. Way back in the 1990s, when I was building the first cellular network in Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram was one of the few cities talking about technology and Technopark.

But unfortunately, subsequent state governments did not give it the required priority and attention, or make the right investments. So today Thiruvananthapuram is almost a laggard in this fast-growing digital economy where there are so many startups all over the country, so many unicorns.

So what I have said is that while Thiruvananthapuram may have missed the first wave of startups and unicorns and innovation that lasted the last 5-6 years, the next wave in semiconductors, AI, electronic systems, are all areas that Thiruvananthapuram can today take the lead in and become a very strong hub for startups and innovation.

That is my vision and the second part of the vision is that Techno Park should not necessarily only be in Kazhakootam, that we also grow and expand, build and grow and expand Techno Park in Neyyattinkara and Parassala.

These are rural and semi-urban areas on the other end of this constituency. There is plenty of land there and there are many beautiful areas which these technology companies would love.

Your take on the tussle between the LDF government and the Centre over the state's borrowing limits.

It is not a tussle. The state government has asked for more money. The central government declined because the RBI has pointed out that the finances of the state government are in an alarming situation.

The state government then went to the Supreme Court some days ago and the Supreme Court ruled that the state government has completely mismanaged its finances and that cannot be an excuse for the government of India to allow it to breach its fiscal responsibility measures under the FRBM Act.

Eight years of continuous industrial decline, eight years of continuous decline in agriculture production and eight years of increasing debt has created a model which is not sustainable and therefore the financial distress in Kerala is acute and real. Kerala is poised on the brink of financial bankruptcy, thanks to the last eight years of the Left.

What solutions do you propose to improve the state's finances?

The state needs more investment, the state needs more job creation, the state needs more gross value added in its economy. That is not just coming from petrol and lottery, which is what is dominating its revenues today. So the state needs an economic model, and economic vision, which right now it doesn't have.

The Marxists are still rooted in the 60s type economy, which went out of fashion in China and Russia (USSR), many years ago. But the communists still keep clinging on to that. The Congress has even less of an approach towards development and investment because they're busy pretending to be communists.

So the only solution for the state to get a really good economic model and economic vision is really to have a BJP government even in the state to follow the Narendra Modiji-type economic model and vision of growth and investments and jobs and prosperity.

Is there scope for manufacturing industries in Kerala? It is often stated that the state is not friendly for investments.

Yes, I think there is tremendous scope, especially given that there is a port and a port-led development model almost certainly has to include manufacturing, especially import-export intensive manufacturing like with electronics. So I am very bullish about the future of electronics manufacturing in Kerala.

If the state government can rein in its violent unions, hoodlums and goons and does not scare away investors, then I can certainly bring many, many large factories, electronics factories to Thiruvananthapuram.

Any plans for the semiconductor industry in Kerala?

In Kerala, I have already announced that one of the things that I'm very keen on doing is to create a semiconductor research centre, which would be co-located with the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and the Indian Institute of Space Technology (IIST). That would form a nice triangle of capabilities and intersecting technologies.

Are there plans to manufacture equipment for semiconductor fabs in India?

Too early for that. We should walk slowly, learn to walk fast, then sprint slowly, learn to sprint fast and then get into some of these much more complex areas like semiconductor equipment.

You know that that is certainly one of the most complicated parts of engineering and science and manufacturing combined.

Only one or two companies in the world really have that kind of technology and capability. It's not something that can be built overnight or just bought overnight. It's certainly a long haul to get there but I'm very confident that we will get there far faster than most of the other countries that are competing to get there.

Please tell us about your work at Intel.

I did a lot of freelance work for Intel while I was still in university. And then I got a job at Microsoft. Then I was headhunted away back to Intel by Vinod Dham. I was there first as a design engineer, then senior design engineer, and then a CPU architect till late 1991, and early 1992. I worked on the 486 and the Pentium processors.

What part of electronics manufacturing can Kerala target?

Kerala can be a nice hub for manufacturing of mobile phone accessories. It can house the manufacturing of computers, laptops, and servers.

Everything is possible in Kerala and electronics do not require heavy real estate. It is not polluting, it is very clean. So none of the traditional challenges that manufacturing faces, we will need to face in Kerala. So I think that's what makes electronics and digital very attractive for Kerala.

During the programme on Kerala economy you stated that 37 per cent of seats in colleges of the state are vacant and that is because students are going to where there are opportunities to work. Are there any other reasons?

Also, 37 per cent of seats are vacant because people do not consider higher education safe for children. Because here unfortunately the perception is that children go to college and can get killed as what happened recently with a young boy called Siddharth. That perception is very, very strong.

Parents don't want to risk sending their child into a system that may get the child into violence for no fault of the child or the parent. So unless that issue is addressed, children will continue to flee Kerala, not just for work, but to study.

I have heard that drinking water is an issue in some parts of Thiruvananthapuram. How big an issue is it? Has the Jal Jeevan Mission helped resolve the issue?

It's a big issue, especially for the poor and the coastal communities.

There are 7.2 lakh rural homes in Thiruvananthapuram, of which only 1.5-1.4 lakh homes had drinking water in 2019 when Prime Minister launched Jal Jeevan Mission. And in the three years, 3.5 years, over 4 lakh homes have been given tap water, but still 2.69 lakh homes lack it despite the central government keeping the money ready and giving the money to the state because the state does not have the matching grants.

You hinted at a solution to this while speaking at the event on health.

Yes, I have said that if people have been denied their rights because of the financial incapacity of the state, perhaps it's time for the government of India to directly talk to the beneficiaries and see that the benefits are delivered to the beneficiaries directly.

The opposition has said that you are an outsider and an entrepreneur and not a ground-level politician.

It's a silly argument because this is an argument coming from people who have nothing else to offer. I have been in public life for 18 years. I have had an absolutely blemish free track record in politics and public life. That is why people look at me and call it politics of performance. I have performed, I have delivered, I have fought the biggest of scams. The 2G scam — I exposed it.

I have not conducted myself in any way like any typical person who was an entrepreneur or businessman who came into politics. So, I think if my opponents say I am an outsider, all that is just because they have nothing else to say and they are afraid of their own record and have nothing in their record to show.

What do you think is the difference between the 2019 elections and now? ask, as we reach the temple.

"I certainly think that there will be one difference and that is that we will win (from Thiruvananthapuram) and in 2019 we did not," Chandrasekhar quipped.

This report is part of Swarajya's 50 Ground Stories Project - an attempt to throw light on themes and topics that are often overlooked or looked down. You can support this initiative by sponsoring as little as ₹2999. Click here for more details.