Thiruvananthapuram, May 13 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had claimed that the lotus - its party symbol - will bloom in Kerala after this assembly elections, had to be content with becoming runners-up in three constituencies.

 
 The BJP had contested in 138 of the 140 constituencies in the state.
 
 The closest it came to victory was in Manjeshwar in Kasargode district where the BJP's firebrand youth leader K. Surendran finished second with 5,828 votes behind the winner, P.B. Abdul Razak of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).
 
 Razak wrested the seat from sitting Communist Party of India-Marxist legislator C.H. Kunhambu.
 
 In the Kasargode constituency, the BJP's Jayalekshmi Bhatt lost to an IUML candidate by a margin of 9,738 votes.
 
 Former central minister O. Rajagopal, who had an early lead in Nemom in Thiruvananthapuram district, lost out at the end when he was defeated by sitting CPI-M legislator V. Sivankutty by a margin of 6,415 votes.
 
 State BJP president V. Muraleedharan told reporters here that the party had a good chance to win the three constituencies.
 
 "What we have found out is that in Kasargode and Manjeshwar, the Left Ddemocratic Front voted for the Congress-led UDF candidate and in Nemom the Congress voted in favour of the CPI-M," he said.
 
 "Their strategy was to keep us out. In comparison to the 2006 assembly polls our share in the votes grew from 4.75 percent to 6.15 percent and it touched 10,45,807 votes," added Muraleedharan.