Kerala Assembly Election 2021, Udumbanchola profile: State electricity minister MM Mani won seat in 2016
Mani had garnered 50,813 votes, whereas, Congress's Senapathy Venu had polled 49,704 votes in the 2016 polls
Representational image. Firstpost
Udumbanchola Assembly Election 2021 | The Udumbanchola Assembly constituency is located in the Idukki district of Kerala.
The Udumbanchola Assembly constituency will vote on 6 April, 2021, along with the rest of Kerala.
Past election results and winners
Incumbent MLA and CPM leader MM Mani is currently serving as the electricity minister in the Pinarayi Vijayan cabinet. He won the seat by a narrow margin against Congress rival Senapathy Venu in 2016.
Mani garnered 50,813 votes, whereas, Congress's Venu polled 49,704 votes in the 2016 polls. BDJS candidate Saji Parambath got 21,799 votes.
Prior to Mani’s election, CPM leader KK Jayachandran held the seat for three terms from 2001. Mani had also contested the 1996 election but lost to then sitting Congress MLA EM Augusty by over 3,000 votes.
Total electors, voter turnout, population
Electors:
Udumbanchola has 1,64,552 registered voters who can vote in the upcoming Assembly election. There are 81,642 male voters, and 82,910 female voters in the constituency. Udumbanchola has 193 polling stations.
Voter turnout: The voter turnout in the 2016 Assembly election was 83.09 percent. A total of 1.55 lakh voters of the total 1.87 lakh registered electors cast their vote.
Population: The Udumbanchola Assembly constituency comprises Erattayar, Karunapuram, Nedumkandam, Pampadumpara, Rajakkad, Rajakumari, Santhanpara, Senapathy, Udumbanchola and Vandanmedu panchayats in Udumbanchola taluk.
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.
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