Kerala Assembly Election 2021, Shornur profile: CPM fields P Mummikutti as candidate, replaces incumbent MLA PK Sasi

Shornur Assembly Election 2021 | The Shornur Assembly constituency, a CPM stronghold in the Palakkad Lok Sabha constituency, was formed in 2011 after a delimitation exercise in Kerala. CPM has won both the Assembly elections held in Shornur till date. While KS Saleekha won the seat in 2011 by 13,493 votes, PK Sasi retained the seat for CPM in 2016 by 24,547 votes. In 2018, CPM suspended the sitting Shornur MLA from its primary party membership for allegedly making an indecent phone call to a woman Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) member. After an internal party probe report called the victim’s claims “doubtful”, Sasi was reinstated into CPM’s Palakkad district committee. The party, however, has not named him for the 2021 polls, and instead decided to field  P Mummikutti from the seat. The Shornur Assembly seat will go to polls on  6 April, 2021 , along with the rest of Kerala.  

Past election results and winners

CPM’s PK Sasi won the 2016 election in Shornur with 66,165 votes against Congress runner-up C Sangeetha who polled 41,618 votes. BDJS candidate VP Chandran came third with 28,836 votes. Apart from holding the Assembly seat, the LDF is also in power in the Shornur municipal corporation. In the recently-held 2020 local body elections, the CPM won in 16 out of 33 wards, while the BJP bagged 9 wards and the Congress won seven.

Total electors, voter turnout, population

Electors: Shornur has an electorate of 1,89,518, comprising 91,460 males and 98,058 females. There are 208 polling stations in the constituency. Voter turnout: In the 2016 Assembly election, Shornur had a voter turnout of 76.61 percent. A total of 1.41 lakh people exercised their franchise, of whom 66,129 were males and 75,011 were females. Population: The Shornur Assembly constituency comprises Shornur municipality and Ananganadi, Chalavara, Cherpulasserry, Nellaya, Thrikkadeeri, Vaniyamkulam and Vellinezhi panchayats. 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.