Kerala Assembly Election 2021, Nenmara profile: CPM fields incumbent MLA K Babu from LDF stronghold

Nenmara Assembly Election 2021 | The Nenmara Assembly constituency, a CPM stronghold, was formed in 2011 after a delimitation exercise in Kerala. While CPM’s V Chenthamarakshan had won the 2011 election by 8,694 votes, K Babu had retained the seat for CPM by winning in 2016 by 7,408 votes. CPM has fielded Babu from the seat again for the 2021 polls. Veteran politician and Communist Marxist Party founder MV Raghavan had unsuccessfully contested the 2011 election. Following his death in 2014, Congress had contested the 2016 polls from the seat. Now, the CMP is eyeing the seat for the 2021 polls. According to reports, the CMP wants to field MVR’s close aide CN Vijayakrishnan in the 2021 election and has asked the UDF to allot the seat to the party.

Past election results and winners

Electors: In the 2016 election, CPM retained the seat with its nominee K Babu polling 66,316 votes. Congress nominee AV Gopinathan became the runner-up with 58,908 votes.

Total electors, voter turnout, population

Nenmara has 1,88,411 registered voters, out of which 93,582 are males, 94,827 are females and two are third-genders. There are 171 polling stations in the constituency. **Voter turnout: **In the 2016 Assembly election, Nenmara recorded a poll percentage of 80.87. The 1.53 lakh who exercised their franchise included 76,717 males and 77,071 females. **Population: **There are ten panchayats under Nenmara Assembly constituency viz. Elavenchery, Koduvayur, Kollengode, Muthalamada, Nelliyampathy, Nemmara, Pallassana, Ayiloor, Puthunagaram and Vadavannur. 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.********