Kerala Assembly Election 2021, Kannur profile: State ports minister Kadannappally Ramachandran won seat in 2016

Kannur Assembly Election 2021 | The Kannur Assembly seat is one of the 11 seats that come under the Kannur district. For decades now, the Kannur district has held a notorious reputation due to multiple instances of political violence. Between 2000 and 2016 alone, the district witnessed 69 political murders. Rival parties often participate in bloody clashes over political supremacy, which has increased the significance of the district. While generations of loyal party workers have ensured the CPM’s traditional domination continues in the region, the BJP-RSS has managed to build a serious presence in a few pockets in recent years. The elections in the Assembly constituency have, however, primarily been a fight between the UDF and LDF. There was a time when Kannur voters only elected Congress candidates to the Assembly seat. But when a pro-LDF surge changed the game in the last election, the loss of the seat became a huge setback for UDF. The Assembly seat is currently held by Congress (Secular) president Kadannappally Ramachandran, who defeated the Congress by a mere 1,196 votes in 2016. The veteran politician is the Minister for Ports, Museums, Archaeology and Archives in the current Pinarayi Vijayan Cabinet.

Past election results and winners

From 1987 to 2011, Kannur was a UDF constituency. However, in the 2016 Assembly election, Ramachandran of Congress (Secular) won the election with 54,347 votes (43.06 percent of total votes), while Satheesan Pacheni of Congress polled 53,151 votes(42.11 percent of total votes). BJP’s KG Babu polled 13,215 votes (10.47 percent of total votes). Though the district itself is considered a CPM bastion, UDF’s influence can’t be said to have entirely collapsed. Congress’ K Sudhakaran won the Kannur Lok Sabha seat in 2019 and the UDF grabbed the 2020 Kannur municipal corporation election with a clear majority (34 of 55 wards). Kannur municipality comes under the Kannur Assembly constituency.

Total electors, voter turnout, population

According to the final electorate published by the Election Commission, Kannur Assembly constituency has 1,69,086 voters. Of this, 90,702 are female electors while 78,382 are male electors and two are transgender. The constituency will have 149 polling stations. Voter turnout: Kannur had a total of 1,62,198 electors in the 2016 Assembly election. The Assembly constituency witnessed a 77.32 percent voter turnout (1,25,417 voters), of which 54,980 were male and 70,437 were female. Population: Kannur Assembly constituency—which comes under Kannur Lok Sabha constituency— comprises Kannur municipality and Chelora, Edakkad, Elayavoor and Munderi panchayats in Kannur taluk. Kannur district has a population of 22,51,727, of whom 10,98,838 are males and 11,52,889 are females. 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 is likely to be held in April-May 2021 along with Assam, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry. 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.