Kerala Assembly Election 2021, Udma profile: CPM's K Kunhiraman has won every election from seat since 2001

Udma Assembly Election 2021 | Udma is an Assembly constituency in the Kasaragod district of Kerala. It falls under the Kasaragod Parliamentary constituency. The current MLA is K Kunhiraman of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the main constituent of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF). The CPM leader had won the seat in 2016 with a margin of 3,832 votes defeating his nearest opponent K Sudhakaran of the Congress. A farmer by profession, Kunhiraman has been recently in news over allegations of bogus voting during the recently concluded local body polls in the state. According to a report in Mathrubhumi, a polling officer had complained to the State Election Commission (SEC) recently that Kunhiraman had threatened him for verifying the credentials of voters. Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan had defended the 72-year-old CPM district leader following the allegations.

Past election results and winners

Udma Assembly constituency is a UDF stronghold with CPM winning every election from the constituency since the 1991 Kerala Assembly election. Incumbent MLA Kunhiraman first won the Udma Assembly seat in 2001 and has retained it since then. The Congress, which has won the seat only once in the 1987 Assembly election (KP Kunhikannan had defeated CPM’s Purushothaman K by 7,845 votes), has emerged as the main challenger since then. However, the party has failed to wrest control of the seat from CPM. In 2001, Kunhiraman had won the seat by defeating Congress’ Advocate CK Sreedharan by over 9,000 votes. He won the seat again in 2006 defeating Congress’ P Gangadharan Nair with a whopping margin of over 27,000 votes. Kunhiraman retained the seat in the 2011 election even though Congress brought Sreedharan back in the fray. The win margin, however, was just over 10,000 in the 2011 election. In the 2016 election, Kunhiraman received 70,679, defeating Congress’ K Sudhakaran. The win margin, however, fell down to 3,832 votes.

Total electors, voter turnout, population

Voter turnout: The voter turnout in the 2016 Udma Assembly Election was 80.45 percent, the third-highest in the seven Assembly segments that form the Kasaragod Parliamentary constituency. The Udma Assembly constituency has 198 polling stations as per the  latest data from the Kerala Election Commission website. Electors: As per the  electorate data for 2020, Kasaragod district (includes Kasargod, Udma, Kanhangad, Trikaripur, and Manjeshwar Assembly segments) has 10,16,193 voters of whom, 4,97,130 are male and 5,19,062 female. There is one third gender voter registered in the district. According to the Election Commission of India, Kerala has 2,62,57,121 electors, of whom 1,26,16,789 are male, 1,34,95,097 female and 149 third gender voters. The state also has 89,213 overseas voters, who will be allowed to vote via postal ballots recently cleared by the Election Commission. The 2021 Kerala Assembly election is the first time overseas electors from the state will be able to cast their ballots from abroad. Majority of the overseas voters are male (83,624), followed by women (5,577) and 12 third gender voters. There are a total of 55,873 service voters, of whom 53,428 are male and 2,445 female. Population: As per the 2005 delimitation exercise, Udma Assembly constituency includes Bedadka, Chemnad, Delampady, Kuttikole and Muliyar Panchayats in Kasaragod Taluk and Pallikere, Pullur-Periya and Udma Panchayats in Hosdurg Taluk. 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.