Representational image. PTI
Since CPI has a three-term policy for its MLAs, the party has decided not to field incumbent MLA P Thilothaman in the 2021 Assembly election
Representational image. PTI
Cherthala Assembly Election 2021 | Cherthala Assembly constituency is a Left stronghold in the Alappuzha district of Kerala.
Kerala’s first revenue minister and veteran communist leader KR Gowri Amma represented the seat from 1957 to 1965.
Prominent leaders who served as Cherthala MLAs include former Union defence minister AK Anthony and ‘father of Kerala tourism’ PS Sreenivasan. While Anthony won the seat in 1970, 1996 and 2001, Sreenivasan was elected to the Assembly from Cherthala in 1980.
Incumbent MLA P Thilothaman has held the seat since 2006. In the 2016 election, he won a third term as the Cherthala legislator by 7,196 votes.
Since CPI has a three-term policy for its MLAs, CPI has decided not to field Thilothaman in the 2021 Assembly election. The party has instead fielded state executive member P Prasad as its candidate from the constituency.
Prasad faces Vayalar Jayakumar of the BSP, Advocate S Sarath of Congress, Advocate PS Jyothis of NDA ally BDJS, and four Independent candidates Karthikeyan, Sarath S Kannattuveli, Shajahan VA and Advocate Sonnymon K Mathew.
In the 2016 election, P Thilothaman retained the Cherthala seat with 81,197 votes. His Congress rival S Sarath polled 74,001 votes, while BDJS nominee PS Rajeev got 19,614 votes.
Electors:
Cherthala has 2,08,711 registered voters who can vote in the upcoming Assembly election. There are 1,00,951 male voters and 1,07,760 female voters in the constituency. Cherthala has 202 polling stations.
Voter turnout:
The voter turnout in the 2016 Assembly election was 86.3 percent. A total of 1.76 lakh voters of the total 2.04 lakh registered electors cast their vote.
Population:
The Cherthala Assembly constituency comprises Cherthala municipality; and Cherthala South, Kadakkarappally, Kanjikkuzhi, Muhamma, Pattanakkad, Thanneermukkam and Vayalar panchayats in Cherthala 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.
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.
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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