Kerala Assembly Election 2021, Devikulam profile: CPM's S Rajendra won seat, reserved under SC category, in 2016

Devikulam (SC) Assembly Election 2021 | Considered a Left bastion, Devikulam is a Scheduled Caste-reserved constituency in the Idukki district of Kerala.

The Devikulam Assembly constituency will vote on 6 April, 2021, along with the rest of Kerala.

Ahead of the 2021 Assembly election, the Kerala High Court in January issued a notice to the Election Commission on a petition against the poll panel’s decision to keep Devikulam as an SC-reserved seat for six decades.

The petition, filed by Congress leader Infent Thomas, claimed that the development of the constituency was affected because 52.7 percent of Devikulam voters belonged to the general category and the reserved nature of the seat was making leaders from the nearby Munnar contest the seat.

Past election results and winners

Though Congress has won seven Assembly elections in Devikulam since 1957, the seat has been with the CPM since 2006. Incumbent MLA and CPM leader S Rajendra won a third consecutive term in 2016, defeating Congress candidate AK Mony by 5,782 votes.

In the 2016 election, Rajendran garnered 49,510 votes while his Congress' Mony polled 43,728 votes. AIADMK’s RM Dhanalakshmy came third with 11,611 votes.

Total electors, voter turnout, population

Electors:

Devikulam has 1,67,698 registered voters who can vote in the upcoming Assembly election. There are 82,613 male voters, 85,084 female voters and one third-gender voter in the constituency. The constituency has 195 polling stations.

Voter turnout: The voter turnout in the 2016 Assembly election was 71.08 percent. A total of 1.17 lakh voters of the total 1.64 lakh registered electors cast their vote.

Population: The Devikulam Assembly constituency comprises Adimali, Kanthalloor, Mankulam, Marayoor, Munnar, Pallivasal, Vattavada and Vellathooval Panchayats in Devikulam taluk and Bisonvalley and Chinnakanal 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.