Kerala Assembly Election 2021, Tirur profile: IUML's C Mammutty won second term in 2016

Tirur Assembly Election 2021 | The Tirur Assembly segment under the Ponnani Lok Sabha constituency is an IUML stronghold in the Malappuram district.

The CPM has won the Assembly seat only once, during the 2006 election. In 2011, IUML leader C Mammutty won the seat back for UDF by defeating LDF nominee Gafoor P Lillis by 7,061 votes, and has held the seat since then.

Two prominent figures who represented the constituency are former Kerala Speaker K Moideenkutty Haji (he won the seat in 1957, 1960, 1967 and 1987 elections) and former Kerala minister ET Muhammed Basheer (won in 1996, 2001, and 2006). Basheer is currently serving as the Lok Sabha MP from Ponnani.

Past election results and winners

In the 2016 election, IUML’s vote share dropped to 46.85 percent from 54.85 percent in 2011. However, sitting MLA C Mammutty retained his seat by polling 69,305 votes. National Secular Conference runner-up Gafoor P Lillis received 45,739 votes, while BJP’s PT Ali Haji came third with 5,543 votes.

Total electors, voter turnout, population
Electors: Tirur has an electorate of 2,19,253, comprising 1,07,863 males, 1,11,383 females and seven third-genders. The constituency has 183 polling stations.

Voter turnout: In the 2016 Assembly election, Tirur had a voter turnout of 76.17 percent. Of the 1.56 lakh who exercised their franchise, 69,172 were male and 87,146 were female.

Population: The Tirur Assembly constituency comprises Tirur municipality and Athavanad, Kalpakancheri, Thalakkad, Thirunavaya, Valavannur and Vettom 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.