Kerala Assembly Election 2021,Nattika profile: CPM's Geetha Gopi won seat by over 26K votes in 2016

Nattika (SC) Assembly Election 2021 | Nattika is reserved under the SC category in the Kerala Assembly. Left parties have won the seat eight terms since 1957, while Congress has won four. The Nattika Assembly constituency will vote on  6 April, 2021 , along with the rest of Kerala.

Past election results and winners

Prominent leaders who have represented Nattika in the past include present Thrissur Lok Sabha MP TN Prathapan and former Kerala minister Krishnan Kaniyamparambil. Sitting MLA Geetha Gopi, a former Guruvayur municipality chairperson, is currently serving her second term as the Nattika legislator. While her 2011 victory was marked by 16,054 votes, she won the 2016 poll with an improved margin of 26,777 votes. While Geetha received 70,218 votes, Congress’ KV Dasan received 43,441 votes. Gopi garnered a vote share of 46.65 percent, a decline from 50.21 percent in 2011.

Total electors, voter turnout, population

Electors: Nattika has an electorate of 2,03,424, of whom 96,778 are males, 1,06,642 are females, and four are third-genders. There are 175 polling stations in the constituency. Voter turnout: Nattika recorded a 79.07 percent voter turnout in the 2016 Assembly election. Of the 1.34 lakh voters who exercised their franchise, 60,180 were males, 74,096 were females and one was third-gender. Population: The Nattika Assembly constituency comprises Anthikkad, Avinissery, Chazhoor, Cherpu, Paralam and Thanniyam panchayats in Thrissur taluk; and Nattika, Valappad and Talikkulam panchayats in Chavakkad 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 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.