Kerala Assembly Election 2021, Sulthan Bathery profile: Congress' IC Balakrishnan won last two polls in ST-reserved seat

Sulthan Bathery Assembly Election 2021 | Sulthan Bathery is one of the two ST-reserved seats in the Kerala Assembly. Since tribals account for most of the inhabitants, most issues that grip the constituency range from man-animal conflict to agrarian distress and tribal land issues.

Sulthan Bathery will vote on 6 April, 2021 along with 139 other constituencies in the state.

Located in Wayanad district, Sulthan Bathery is a traditional UDF stronghold where the LDF managed to win only twice since 1977.

Ex-Kerala minister KK Ramachandran won three of his six Assembly terms from Sulthan Bathery: in 1980, 1982, and 1987.

Incumbent Congress MLA IC Balakrishnan’s 2011 and 2016 wins were both marked by 7,000-plus vote margins. He is likely to seek re-election from the constituency in the upcoming Assembly polls.

The LDF, however, maintains influence in some pockets of the constituency. In fact, it has been governing the Sulthan Bathery municipality since 2015.

Past election results and winners

Although the Sulthan Bathery Assembly elections have traditionally been an LDF-UDF battle, 2016 witnessed a triangular contest after tribal leader and social activist CK Janu joined the fray as an NDA-backed Independent candidate.

However, Janu’s strong “Children of the soil” campaign against UDF and LDF failed to impress the major voter base. Congress’ Balakrishnan ended up winning a second term polling 75,747 votes against CPM’s Rugmini Subrahmanian, who received 64,549 votes. BJP candidate CK Janu came third after managing to secure only 27,920 votes.

Total electors, voter turnout, population

Electors: Sulthan Bathery has 2.17 lakh registered electors, of whom 1.06 lakh are male, 1.1 lakh are female and one is transgender. There will be 216 polling booths across the constituency in the upcoming 2021 election.

Voter turnout: In the 2016 Assembly election, Sulthan Bathery recorded a polling percentage of 78.55. Of the 1.7 lakh registered voters who turned out, 83,782 were male and 87,185 were female.

Population: The Sulthan Bathery constituency comes under the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala. It consists of Ambalavayal, Meenangadi, Mullenkolly, Nenmeni, Noolpuzha, Poothadi, Pulpalli, and Sulthanbathery panchayats.

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 current Kerala Niyamasabha session will expire on 1 June, 2021.