Mannarkkad Assembly Election 2021 | The Mannarkkad Assembly seat, which comes under the Palakkad Lok Sabha constituency, has been held by the IUML since 2011.
Sitting MLA N Samsudheen won the last two Assembly elections with a vote share of over 49 percent. Samsudheen’s name has been doing rounds for the Mallapuram Lok Sabha seat which recently fell vacant after PK Kunhallikutty quit the Lower House. However, Samsudheen has reportedly shown interest in contesting the Assembly election.
Meanwhile, Palakkad bishop Mar Jacob Manathodath stoked controversy in January for demanding industrialist Isaac Varghese be made the LDF candidate from Mannarkkad.
The bishop, in his letter to CPI Kerala secretary Kanam Rajendran, said that Varghese’s candidature would be supported by the Catholic Church and fielding him would raise the chances of an LDF to win in Mannarkkad.
Past election results and winners
In the 2016 Assembly election, IUML’s N Samsudheen won by 12,325. He polled 73,163 votes against CPI district secretary KP Suresh Raj, who got 60,838 votes.
The UDF is also the ruling coalition in the Mannarkkad municipality, where the IUML and Congress collectively won in 13 out of 29 wards during the 2020 local body elections.
Total electors, voter turnout, population
Electors: Mannarkad has an electorate of 1,94,583, comprising 95,752 males, 98,830 females and one third gender. There are 181 polling stations in the constituency.
Voter turnout: In 2016, Mannarkad recorded a voter turnout of 78.14 percent. The 1.47 lakh voters who exercised their franchise consisted of 70,297 males and 77,572 females.
Population: Mannarkad Assembly constituency comprises Agali, Alanallur, Kottoppadam, Kumaramputhur, Mannarkkad, Pudur and Sholayur 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 11:22PM
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