Kerala Assembly Election 2021, Kuthuparamba profile: Health minister KK Shailaja won CPM stronghold in 2016

Kuthuparamba Assembly Election 2021 | Kuthuparamba is one of the seven Assembly segments of the Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency. The constituency is a CPM stronghold, where the party has won every Assembly election between 1970 and 2016, except once in 2011 after delimitation. Kuthuparamba will vote on 6 April, 2021 along with 139 other constituencies in the state. Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has represented the constituency thrice in the past: from 1970 to 1977, 1977 to 1980, and 1991 to 1996. Ahead of the 2021 Assembly election, CPM is holding seat-sharing talks with LJD and might allot the seat to it. Sitting MLA KK Shailaja is likely to contest on a CPM ticket from another constituency.

Background

The town is associated with the 1994 police firing incident in which five workers of CPM’s youth wing Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) were killed during a violent protest against the UDF government’s education policy. The incident took place when protesters blocked ex-CPM member and then-UDF minister MV Raghavan, who was in town for an event. Vijayan was the Kuthuparamba MLA at the time. The incident triggered a political blame game and a series of investigations. Though the CPM observes “martyr’s day” every year to commemorate the incident, it has received criticism for not acting against Raghavan, and instead, warming up to him in the following years.

Past election results and winners

Following a delimitation exercise, in 2011, Socialist Janata Democratic leader (SJD) KP Mohanan defeated LDF-backed Indian National League (INL) candidate SA Puthiya Valappil by 3,303 votes. After the SJD-JD(U) merger, Mohanan sought re-election from Kuthuparamba in 2016. However, he lost by a 12,291-vote margin to CPM’s Shailaja, who secured 67,013 votes. BJP leader C Sadanandan Master secured 20,787 votes.

Total electors, voter turnout, population

Electorate: As per the final electorate released in January, Kuthuparamba has 1.88 lakh registered voters. Of the total electors, 90,081 are male, and 98,442 are female. Kuthuparamba will have 172 polling stations for the upcoming Assembly election. Voter turnout: In the 2016 Assembly election, Kuthuparamba witnessed a polling percentage of 80.83 percent. A total of 64,318 men and 81,720 women showed up to vote, bringing the total voter turnout to 1,46,038. Population: Kuthuparamba — which falls under Kannur district — comprises Kuthuparamba municipality, Kariyad, Kottayam-Malabar, Kunnothuparambu, Mokeri, Panoor, Pattiom, Peringalam and Thriprangottur panchayats in Thalassery Taluk. Kannur district is home to 22.5 lakh people, of whom 10.98 lakh are male and 11.5 lakh are female.

Election date and timing

The Kerala Legislative 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 current Kerala Niyamasabha session will expire on 1 June, 2021.