Kerala Assembly Election 2021, Chalakudy profile: Kerala Congress (M)'s Dennis Antony up against Congress' TJ Saneesh Kumar Joseph

Chalakudy Assembly Election 2021 | The Chalakudy Assembly seat, once a UDF stronghold, has been held by the CPM since 2006. The constituency, located in Thrissur district, elected BD Devassy to the Assembly for the third consecutive time in 2016. Devassy won by 26,648 votes, defeating senior Congress leader TU Radhakrishnan. With CPM replacing most sitting MLAs who have served for two or more consecutive terms, Devassy is not on the fray. The CPM has, in fact, passed on the seat to Kerala Congress (M) faction, which ditched the UDF to join the Left Democratic Front. The Kerala Congress (M) has fielded Dennis Antony as its candidate from the seat. Antony is up against Congress’ TJ Saneesh Kumar Joseph from the seat. As for the BJP, it has not yet named its candidate from the seat. The Chalakudy Assembly constituency will vote on  6 April, 2021 , along with the rest of Kerala.

Past election results and winners

In the 2016 election, sitting MLA BD Devassy emerged victorious with 74,251 votes. While Congress’ TU Radhakrishnan polled 47,603 votes, BJP nominee KA Unnikrishnan got 26,229 votes. During the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Congress nominee Benny Behanan won the Chalakudy seat, defeating incumbent MP and veteran Malayalam actor Innocent by 1,32,274 votes.

Total electors, voter turnout, population

Electors: Chalakudy has an electorate of 1,86,755, which consists of 90,615 males, 96,139 females and one third-gender. There are 185 polling stations in the constituency. Voter turnout: A total of 1,49,653 voters cast their vote in the 2016 Assembly election, of whom 71,708 were males and 77,945 were females. Chalakudy witnessed a voter turnout of 78.6 percent. Population: The Chalakudy Assembly constituency comprises Chalakkudy municipality; and Athirappilly, Kadukutty, Kodakara, Kodassery, Koratty, Melur and Pariyaram panchayats in Mukundapuram 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.