Kerala Assembly Election 2021, Chengannur profile: CPM's Saji Cherian won seat for LDF in 2018 bypoll, seeks return

ChengannurAssembly Election 2021 | The Chengannur is a traditional UDF constituency in the Alappuzha district of Kerala. Chengannur is part of the Mavelikara Parliamentary constituency.

The first election in this constituency was held in 1957. In the 16 Assembly elections held for this seat, Congress has won it six times, including five times in a row and CPM has won it five times.

The constituency underwent by-election in 2018 when CPM's Saji Cherian retained the seat for the Left Democratic Front (LDF). Cheriyan had defeated Congress's Advocate D Vijayakumar and BJP's Advocate PS Sreedharan Pillai from the constituency.

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By-election in Chengannur was necessitated because of the death of CPM MLA KK Ramachandran Nair.

Cherian is back in the fray as a CPM candidate. He faces Congress' M Murali and BJP's MV Gopakumar in the 2021 polls. The Chengannur Assembly constituency will vote on 6 April, 2021, along with the rest of Kerala.

Past election results and winners

Nair had wrested the seat from Congress' PC Vishnunath who had the seat twice in a row between 2006 and 2011. Nair had received 52880 votes as compared to Vishnunath who received 44,897 votes. BJP's Pillai was close receiving 42,682 votes in the election.

In 2011, Vishnunath had won the seat by a margin of 12,500 votes defeating CPM's Advocate CS Sujatha. IN 2006, he had won the seat by defeating Cherian by a margin of 5,132 votes.

Total electors, voter turnout, population

Electors: Chengannur has 2,03,342 registered voters who can vote in the upcoming Assembly election. There are 95,246 male voters and 1,08,096 female voters in the constituency. Chengannur has 192 polling stations.

Voter turnout: The voter turnout in the 2016 Assembly election was 73.73 percent. A total of 1,45,518 voters of the total 1,97,372 registered electors cast their vote.

Population: The Chengannur Assembly constituency comprises Chengannur Municipality and Ala, Budhanoor, Cheriyanad, Mannar, Mulakuzha, Pandanad, Puliyoor, Thiruvanvandoor, Venmony Panchayats in Chengannur Taluk and Chennithala-Thriperumthura Panchayats in Mavelikkara 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.