Kerala Assembly Election 2021, Ponnani profile: CPM’s P Ramakrishnan won 'Little Mecca of Malabar' in 2016

Ponnani Assembly Election 2021 | Ponnani is a culturally and historically significant area in Kerala, often referred to as the ‘Little Mecca of Malabar’ due to the presence of a number of old mosques.

The Ponnani Assembly seat, which comprises six local bodies, has been held by the CPM since 2006. Prominent figures who represented Ponnani in the Assembly include former Congress minister MP Gangadharan and CPM veteran Paloli Mohammed Kutty.

Incumbent MLA P Ramakrishnan, who won the 2011 and 2016 elections in Ponnani, is the current Speaker in the Kerala Assembly. Although CPM has a two-term norm for its MLAs, it is likely to allow Ramakrishnan to seek a third term in the 2021 election.

Past election results and winners

In the 2016 election, CPM’s P Ramakrishnan retained his seat with 69,332 votes, defeating Congress rival PT Ajai Mohan, who secured 53,692 votes. Ramakrishnan’s vote share, which was 47.55 percent in 2011, marginally rose to 48.91 percent in 2016.

Total electors, voter turnout, population

Electors: Ponnani has an electorate of 1,97,524, comprising 95,839 males, 1,01,684 females and one third-gender. The constituency has 161 polling stations.

Voter turnout: The 2016 Assembly election recorded a 74.14 percent voter turnout in Ponnani. Over 1.41 lakh who exercised their franchise, 62,225 were male and 79,168 were female.

Population: The local bodies that come under the Ponnani Assembly segment are: Ponnani municipality and Alamcode, Maranchery, Nannamukku, Perumpadappa and Veliyankode 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.