Kerala Assembly Election 2021, Haripad profile: Congress' Ramesh Chennithala eyes fifth term from seat

Haripad Assembly Election 2021 | The Haripad Assembly constituency is a Congress stronghold in the Alappuzha district of Kerala. The Haripad Assembly constituency will vote on  6 April, 2021, along with the rest of Kerala.

Past election results and winners

In the 2016 election, Congress strongman Ramesh Chennithala won the seat by 18,621 votes, defeating CPI’s P Prasad. He garnered 75,980 votes while CPI runner-up P Prasad polled 57,359 votes. BJP nominee D Aswanidev finished third with 12,985 votes. Chennithala, who is serving his fourth term as the Haripad MLA, had previously won the seat in 1982, 1987 and 2011. Additionally, he has also been the Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly since 2016. The seat has remained with even though reports had said that the CPM was planning to take over the seat. The party, however, has fielded Advocate R Sajilal from the constituency. As for the UDF, Chennithala is back in the fray for another term from Haripad. Also contesting from the seat are BJP’s K Soman, SUCI (Communist)’s Madhu T, and Independent candidate Niyaz Bharati.

Total electors, voter turnout, population

Electors: Haripad has 1,92,100 registered voters who can vote in the upcoming Assembly election. There are 90,246 male voters, 1,01,853 female voters and one third-gender voter in the constituency. Haripad has 182 polling stations. Voter turnout: The voter turnout in the 2016 Assembly election was 80.38 percent. A total of 1.48 lakh voters of the total 1.84 lakh registered electors cast their vote. Population: Haripad has a sizeable presence of farmers and fisherfolk. During the 2011 delimitation exercise, while Veeyapuram panchayat was taken away from Haripad, Muthukulam panchayat was added to the constituency. Currently, the Haripad Assembly constituency comprises Arattupuzha, Cheppad, Cheruthana, Chingoli, Haripad, Karthikappally, Karuvatta, Kumarapuram, Muthukulam, Pallippad and Thrikkunnapuzha panchayats in Karthikappally 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.