KASARGOD: The northernmost district is undoubtedly a left fortress with the LDF holding the Parliament seat and a majority of Assembly seats and local body institutions. But the UDF is pinning hopes on its growing accetance, especially after the last parliamentary and civic elections.
Kasargod is important for BJP too as they consider two seats here as potential ‘gateway’ to Kerala for many years - Manjeshwaram and Kasargod, both held by the IUML - to open an account.
Among the local body institutions, LDF rules two municipalities (Kanjangad and Neeleswaram) and the IUML one (Kasaragod). The UDF wrested the district panchayat from LDF after a long gap last year.
LDF keeps four block panchayats and the UDF two. Of the 37 gram panchayats, UDF has 17 in its kitty, closely followed by LDF with 15 and the BJP, five.
In the 2014 parliamentary polls, CPM’s P. Karunakaran scraped through by a margin of 6,921 votes defeating Congress’s T. Siddique as against his 2009 margin of 64, 427 and 1,08,256 in 2004.
The voting pattern portrays a growing preference for the UDF, and strong candidates could make a turnaround. This possibility has prompted Congress to field firebrand K. Sudhakaran in Uduma.
The BJP has continuously been finishing a second in Manjeshwaram and Kasaragod seats, and it alleges the CPM of transferring votes to UDF in Manjeshwaram to avoid the lotus bloom. But the last Lok Sabha voting pattern flattened that argument.
In 2011 elections, P.B Abdul Razak of IUML got 49,795 (37.46 percent) votes there whereas BJP’s K. Surendran got 43,931 (33.08 percent) and CPM’s C.H. Kunjambu 35,014 (26.37 percent).
But in 2014, both Mr Surendran (46,631) and Mr Siddique (52,459) improved the tally of their side at the expense of Mr Karunakaran, who could garner only 29,433 votes. That means Mr Kunjambu had polled 5,581 more votes than him.
In Kasargod, the UDF got 45.35 percent votes, BJP 37.02 percent and INL 14.07 percent.
This time also, Manjeshwaram would be keenly watched as BJP is likely to field its state general secretary K. Surendran again. Uduma is set to witness a close contest between K. Sudhakaran and CPM’s sitting legislator K. Kunhiraman.
