Kerala Assembly Election 2021, Kattakkada profile: CPM's IB Satheesh narrowly defeated Congress' N Sakthan in 2016

Kattakkada Assembly Election 2021 | Kattakkada is an Assembly constituency in the Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala. It falls under the Attingal Parliamentary constituency. The election to the state will be held on 6 April and results will be out on 2 May.

IB Satheesh of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is the sitting MLA of this constituency, while Congress' Adoor Prakash is the current MP from the Lok Sabha seat.

Past election and results

Kattakkada is relatively a new seat which came into existence after the 2008 Delimitation exercise. The seat is currently represented by IB Satheesh of the CP(M), who defeated Congress' N Sakthan, speaker of the 13th Kerala Legislative Assembly by a margin of 849 votes in the 2016 Assembly Elections.

In the 2011 polls, Sakthan had bagged the seat with 44.63 percent of the total votes polled. His nearest rival was MV Jayadali, an Independent, got over 33 percent votes in the poll.

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 vote-banks, 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.

In the local body polls, however, the people have shown a clear preference towards the CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF). Since 1979, only once, in 2010, has the United Democratic Front (UDF) upset the apple cart.

Total electors, voter turnout, population

Electors: According to the Election Commission of India, the total number of registered electors in the state is 2,67,31,509, including 1,29,52,025 male, 1,37,79,263 female and 211 third gender voters.

In the district of Thiruvananthapuram alone, there are 27,69,272 voters of which 13,15,905 are male and 14,53,310 are female. There are 57 third-gender voters in the district.

Voter Turnout: The overall voter turnout during the 2016 Assembly election was 77.35 percent. The percentage voter turnout of women voters excluding the postal ballot was 75.97 percent and that of men voters excluding postal ballot was 78.14 percent. At least 76.57 percent of registered voters had come out to vote in the Kattakkada Assembly.

Population and demography: Total population of Thiruvananthapuram district is 3,301,427 as per census 2011. Hinduism constitutes 66.46 percent of Thiruvananthapuram population. Muslims are in minority in Thiruvananthapuram district, forming 13.72 percent of the total population here.