Kerala Assembly Election 2021, Thalassery profile: CPM leader AM Shamseer won LDF citadel in 2016

Thalassery Assembly Election 2021 | Thalassery is an LDF citadel, which has elected CPM representatives to the Assembly in most of the elections. Heavyweight leaders who won from Thalassery in the past include former Supreme Court judge VR Krishna Iyer — served in the first communist ministry in 1957-59 — and former Kerala chief minister EK Nayyar (the longest-serving holder of the office). Though statistically, despite CPM’s consecutive wins in Thalassery, the BJP’s increasing vote share in the region is something to note. BJP received 5.92 percent (6,973 votes) of the total votes polled in the 2011 Assembly election which increased to 16.68 percent (22,125 votes) in 2016. This could pose a challenge to the CPM, which has been confidently bagging the seat since 1977.

Past election results and winners

In the 2016 Assembly election, CPM leader AM Shamseer polled 70,741 votes, defeating Congress’ AP Abdulkutty who secured 36,624 votes. In 2011, CPM’s Kodiyeri Balakrishnan secured 66,870 votes against Congress runner-up Rijil Makkuty, who got 40,361 votes. In the recent December 2020 local body elections, the LDF won all seats in the Thalassery block panchayat.

Total electors, voter turnout, population

Electors: Thalassery has 1.71 lakh registered voters who can exercise their franchise in the upcoming Assembly election. Of the total electors, 79,037 are male, and 92,157 are female. Thalassery will have 165 polling stations across the constituency. Voter turnout: In the 2016 Assembly election, Thalassery witnessed a voter turnout of 79.31 percent. A total of 1,31,931 electors turned up to vote, of whom 59,049 were male and 72882 were female. Population: Thalassery comes under the Kannur district. After the last delimitation exercise, the Assembly constituency has Thalassery municipality and Chockli, Eranholi, Kadirur, New–Mahe and Panniyannur panchayats in Thalassery Taluk. Kannur district is home to 22.5 lakh people, of whom 10.98 lakh are male and 11.5 lakh are female.

Election date and timing

The Kerala Assembly/Niyama Sabha polls are 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 the rest 132 are male MLAs. The incumbent Kerala Niyamasabha will expire on 1 June, 2021.