New Delhi - Former United Nations diplomat Shashi Tharoor said Thursday he was confident of getting voters from India's southern Kerala state to support him in the upcoming general elections, despite being dubbed an outsider.

Tharoor, 53, a career diplomat with the UN from 1978 until 2007, has been nominated by the Congress Party as its candidate for the constituency of Thiruvananthapuram in the capital Kerala.

Tharoor, who resigned from his post as UN under-secretary general after unsuccessfully contesting for the post of secretary general in 2006, has lived outside India for most of his life.

Tharoor said in an interview with NDTV television channelhe "accepted" that the local people may feel that their hard work was being bypassed in favour of somebody from the "outside."

He said he would provide a balance as he was a person rooted in Kerala who brought in a different kind of vision.

Almost every other family in Kerala has a member working abroad. An estimated 1.8 million people from the state live and work in foreign countries, largely in the Gulf, and for them Tharoor is a success story.

Tharoor will face a tough fight from his main rival Ramachandran Nair from Kerala's governing Left Democratic Front. Nair, who belongs to the Communist Party of India, was elected from the constituency in the 2004 elections.

The Bahujan Samaj Party, which represents disadvantaged classes, has also put up a candidate, Neelalohithadasan Nadar, a former member of the Congress Party.

Tharoor's has his work cut out further as a section of local Congress party workers were opposed to his candidature as they see him as an outsider, the IANS news agency said. (dpa)