Kerala Assembly Election 2021, Adoor profile: CPI's Chittayam Gopakumar seeks third term in former Congress sronghold

Adoor Assembly Election 2021 | Adoor Assembly constituency used to be a Congress stronghold, but the LDF wrested the seat from the UDF member in 2011. Since then, the constituency has elected CPI’s Chittayam Gopakumar as an MLA in the last two elections. The Adoor Assembly constituency falls in the Pathanamthitta district of Kerala and is part of the Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha constituency. There are a total of seven candidates in the fray from the constituency, including incumbent CPI MLA Chittayam Gopakumar. The other candidates include Congress’ MG Kannan, BJP’s Advocate Pandalam Prathapan, BSP’s Vipin Kanikonathu, Anna Democratic Human Rights Movement Party of India’s Rajankulakkada, SUCI (Communist)’s Saranyaraj, and Independent candidate R Kannan. The Adoor Assembly constituency will vote on  6 April, 2021 , along with the rest of Kerala.

Past election results and winners

CPI’s Chittayam Gopkakumar had wrested the seat from the Congress by defeating its candidate Pandalam Sudhakaran in the 2011 election with a narrow margin of 607 votes. Gopakumar had received 63,501 or 47.02 percent votes, whereas, Sudhakaran had received 62,894 or 46.57 percent votes. The BJP’s KK Sasi was a distant second runner-up receiving just 6,210 or 4.6 percent votes. Gopakumar retained the Adoor constituency in the 2016 polls, but his win margin increased to 25,460 or 16.42 percent of total votes polled. Gopkaumar had received 76,034 (49.05 percent) votes while the runner-up candidate was KK Shaju of the Congress. Shaju had received 50,574 (32.62 percent) votes. The BJP’s vote share in the 2016 polls increased significantly with party candidate Advocate P Sudheer receiving 25,940 (16.73 percent) votes.

Total electors, voter turnout, population

Electors: Adoor has 2,03,737 registered voters who can vote in the upcoming Assembly election. There are 95,168 male voters and 1,08,567 female voters and two transgender voter in the constituency. Adoor has 209 polling stations. Voter turnout: The voter turnout in the 2016 Assembly election was 74.37 percent, whereas the turnout was 69.61 percent in 2011. Population: The Adoor Assembly constituency comprises Adoor Municipality and Pandalam, Thumbamon, Pandalam Thekkekara, Kodumon, Ezhamkulam, Erathu, Pallickal, Kadampanadu Panchayats in Adoor 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. Counting of votes will take place on 2 May. 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.