Kerala Assembly Election 2021, Piravom profile: TM Jacob's son Anoop Jacob won seat in 2016

Piravom Assembly Election 2021 | Christian-dominated Piravom came into existence as an Assembly constituency during the 1977 election after a delimitation exercise.

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

Past election results and winners

TM Jacob won the Assembly seat five times: in 1977, 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2011. He contested in 1977 on a Kerala Congress ticket and the 1991 polls on a Kerala Congress (Mani) ticket. After splitting from Kerala Congress (M), he successfully contested the 1996 election as Kerala Congress (Jacob) candidate.

While TM Jacob lost to CPM’s MJ Jacob in 2006, he recaptured the seat in 2011 by a mere 157 votes but died a few months later at the age of 61.

In the following 2012 bypoll, TM Jacob's son Anoop Jacob stepped in as Kerala Congress (Jacob) candidate as part of the UDF alliance and defeated MJ Jacob by over 12,000 votes.

Anoop Jacob won the seat again in the 2016 polls by a margin of 6,195 votes. While Anoop Jacob received 73,770 votes, his CPM rival MJ Jacob polled 67,575 votes. BDJS nominee CP Sathyan received 17,503 votes.

Total electors, voter turnout, population

Electors: Piravom has 2,04,584 registered voters who can vote in the upcoming Assembly election. There are 99,324 male voters, 1,05,259 female voters and one third-gender voter in the constituency. The constituency has 166 polling stations.

Voter turnout: The voter turnout in the 2016 Assembly election was 80.38 percent. A total of 1.6 lakh voters of the total 1.99 lakh registered electors cast their vote.

Population: The Piravom Assembly constituency comprises Amballoor, Edakkattuvayal, Chottanikkara, Mulanthuruthy and Thiruvankulam panchayat in Kanayannur taluk; and Elanji, Koothattukulam, Maneed, Pampakuda, Piravom, Ramamangalam and Thirumarady panchayats in Muvattupuzha 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.