 "Kerala Assembly Election 2021, Ollur profile: CPI’s K Rajan won 2016 polls in seat known to alternate between UDF, LDF")
Ollur Assembly Election 2021 | Ollur is an Assembly constituency in the Thrissur district of Kerala. The Ollur Assembly constituency will vote on 6 April, 2021 , along with the rest of Kerala.
Past election results and winners
Once a Congress stronghold, Ollur has maintained a tradition of alternately electing CPI and Congress since 1987. While CPI won 1987, 1996, 2006 and 2016 elections, Congress won in 1991, 2001, and 2011. In the 2016 Assembly polls, CPI’s K Rajan bagged the seat by 13,248 votes. Rajan has been serving as the chief whip of the Kerala Assembly, a cabinet rank, since 2019. Rajan polled 71,666 votes, defeating then sitting MLA MP Vincent who got 58,418 votes. Vincent had won the seat in 2011 by defeating then sitting MLA Rajaji Mathew Thomas by 6,247 votes.
Total electors, voter turnout, population
Electors: Ollur has an electorate of 1,97,797, comprising 96,362 males, 1,01,433 females and two third-genders. There are 178 polling stations in the Assembly constituency. Voter turnout: In the 2016 Assembly polls, Ollur witnessed a voter turnout of 77.7 percent. Out of the 1.5 lakh voters who exercised their franchise, 73,754 were males and 76,273 were females. Population: The Ollur Assembly constituency comprises Madakkathara, Nadathara, Pananchery and Puthur panchayats and wards numbers 12, 13, 23 to 31, 40 to 42 of Thrissur Municipal Corporation. 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.