The Hindu : Kerala News : See-saw battle for high-range seat

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Kerala

Kerala

See-saw battle for high-range seat

Staff Reporter

The constituency has elected candidates from both fronts in previous elections

O.P. Vasudevan Unni

PALAKKAD: Mannarkkad, the biggest Assembly segment in the district, is witnessing a keen contest between V. Chamunni of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and N. Shamsudeen of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).

The high-range constituency has not displayed any distinct bias so far, electing both IUML and CPI candidates in the previous elections. The segment is now represented by Deputy Speaker Jose Baby of the CPI.

Mr. Chamunni, the LDF candidate, is the chairman of Kerala Agro Machinery Corporation (KAMCO). The IUML, faced with factional issues led by two former MLAs — Kalladi Mohammed and Kalathil Abdullah — finally decided to field Muslim Youth League secretary N. Shamsudeen from Malappuram. The nominee of the Bharatiya Janata Party is O.P. Vasudevan Unni.

N. Shamsudeen

Out of the six grama panchayats of the constituency, Pudur, Sholayur and Agali, are in the tribal belt of Attappady Hills. The three panchayats, now ruled by the UDF, were LDF bastions for long earlier.

The other panchayats of the constituency are Alanallur, Kottopadam, Kumaramputhur, Mannarkkad and Thenkara. Attappady and Mannarkkad block panchayats are also ruled by UDF.

More women voters

V. Chamunni

In Mannarkkad, women voters outnumber men. In the electorate of 1,64,435, there are 84,888 women.

Since the 1980 Assembly elections the constituency has witnessed a close contest between IUML and CPI candidates. In 1980, the seat was won by CPI and in 1982, by IUML. In 1987 and 1991 the League retained the seat. But in 1996 Mr. Baby captured the seat for CPI but in 2001 he was defeated by League candidate. In the last Assembly election Mr. Baby defeated League candidate Kalathil Abdullah by a margin of 7,213 votes.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the UDF won by 9,723 votes in Mannarkkad. The margin rose to 12,577 votes in the local body election last year. UDF is banking on these results, but LDF campaign managers say that in the Assembly election things will be different. They believe that the clean image and long years of political work will earn more votes for V. Chamunni. The LDF workers also harbour the hope that the popularity of Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan will swing the result in their favour. This makes the election result unpredictable in Mannarkkad constituency this time, the political observers here said.

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