Kerala Assembly Election 2021, Ottapalam profile: CPM names Premkumar as candidate for seat held by party since 2006

Ottapalam Assembly Election 2021 | The Ottapalam Assembly seat, which comes under the Palakkad Lok Sabha constituency, has been held by the CPM since 2006. Prior to that, VC Kabeer won the Ottapalam seat five times: in 1980 on an INC(U) ticket; in 1982 as an Independent; in 1991 and 1996 on a Congress (S) ticket; and in 2001 as an NCP candidate.

CPM’s M Hamsa defeated Kabeer in 2006 by 24,343 votes and won another term in 2011. In 2016, CPM fielded its state committee member P Unni, who won the seat by 16,088 votes.

Ahead of the 2021 Assembly election, there were reports on Unni’s poor health. Though the sitting MLA had rejected the reports, saying said that he would contest the polls if the CPM wanted him to, the CPM has named Premkumar as a candidate from the seat.

Past election results and winners

In the 2016 Assembly polls, CPM had a 44.71 percent vote share and its winning candidate P Unni received 67,161 votes. Congress runner-up Shanimol Osman polled 51,073 votes (34 percent of the total votes) while BJP’s P Venugopalan got 27,605 votes (18.38 percent of the total votes).

The LDF is also in power in the Ottapalam municipality. In the recently-held 2020 local body elections, the CPM won in 16 out of 36 wards, while the UDF won in 11 wards and the NDA won in nine.

Total electors, voter turnout, population

Electors: Ottapalam has 97,932 males, 1,05,515 females and two third-genders who are registered to vote in the 2021 Assembly election. There are 211 polling stations for the constituency’s electorate of 2,03,449.

Voter turnout: In the 2016 Assembly election, Ottapalam recorded a voter turnout of 76.04 percent. The votes of over 1.49 electors—comprising 71,199 males and 78,368 females—were polled in the election.

Population: The Ottapalam Assembly constituency comprises Ottappalam municipality, and Ambalapara, Kadampazhipuram, Karimpuzha, Lakkidi-Perur, Pookkottukavu, Sreekrishnapuram and Thachanattukara panchayats.

As per Census 2011, of Kerala's 3.34 crore population, 54.73 percent are followers of Hinduism, followed by 26.56 percent followers of Islam and 18.38 percent Christians. Hinduism is the major religion in 13 of the state's 14 districts.
Malappuram is the only district in Kerala where Islam is the major religion with 70.24 percent of the district's total population following the religion.

The state has a tiny population that follows Jainism (0.01 percent), Sikhism (0.01 percent), Buddhism (0.01 percent) and 0.02 percent (other religions). Nearly 0.26 percent in the state didn't state their religion during the 2011 Census.

Election date and timing

The Kerala Assembly/Niyama Sabha polls will be held on 6 April, 2021, along with Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. The day will also see phase three polls in Assam and West Bengal.

The Kerala Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha) has a total number of 140 seats, of which, 14 seats are reserved for the Scheduled Castes and two seats are reserved for the Scheduled Tribes.

The outgoing Assembly has eight female MLAs and rest 132 are male MLAs. The incumbent Kerala Niyamasabha will expire on 1 June, 2021.

Political alliances and Kerala

Elections in Kerala have traditionally been a contest between the UDF and the LDF with power swinging between the two groups.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the Congress-led UDF had won 19 out of the state’s 20 Lok Sabha seats banking on incumbency against the ruling LDF. However, repeating a similar feat in the Assembly polls is going to be an uphill task for the UDF.

The LDF has not only managed to overcome anti-incumbency in the 2020 local body polls but also managed to make inroads into UDF votebanks, particularly in Thrissur, Ernakulam, and Kottayam districts.

The NDA, which is emerging as a third front in Kerala, will be hoping to increase its tally in the Assembly polls. However, given that the BJP-led NDA didn't meet the expectations in the 2020 local body polls despite making gains, its ability to impact either the UDF's or LDF's prospects in the Assembly election remains unclear.

Of the seven Assembly segments that are part of the Kasaragod Parliamentary constituency, five are with the CPM-led LDF (four with CPM, and one with CPI) while IUML, a constituent of the Congress-led UDF, is the second-largest party, winning the remaining two seats (Kasaragod and Manjeshwaram) in the last Assembly polls.

BJP didn't win any of the seven Assembly segments that are part of the Kasaragod Parliamentary constituency in 2016.

March 10, 2021 at 11:17PM