Alappuzha: Haripad in the Alappuzha district of Kerala has been a constituency with no special affinity towards the Left or the Congress, traditionally.
With the candidature of Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala for the second time consecutively, Harippad has gained attention as a VIP constituency this time.
All India Youth Federation (AIYF) state president Advocate R Sajilal is the Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate contesting from Harippad.
The candidature of Niyaz Bharathi, a rebel Congress candidate who was the former Youth Congress state vice president, would be a headache for the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in Haripad.
An executive committee member of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) is contesting against the Opposition leader alleging injustice during candidate selection within the party.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded BJP south zone president K Soman at Haripad.
Constituency history:
Haripad Municipality and Arattupuzha, Cheppadu, Cheruthana, Chingoli, Karthikappalli, Karuvatta, Kumarapuram, Muthukulam, Pallippadu and Thrikkunnappuzha panchayaths constitute Harippad Assembly Constituency.
The electorate is of 196024 voters, inclusive of 103938 women, 92083 men and three transgenders.
The electoral politics in the constituency:
Haripad has elected Congress candidates to the Assembly 9 times, while the Left candidates were supported five times altogether.
In 1957, Ramakrishna Pilla, an independent candidate was the first to reach the State Assembly from Haripad.
Ramakrishna Pilla had defeated Congress’s K Balagangadharan then and became the first legislator from here.
In the 1960 elections, Congress marked its first victory from Haripad by defeating the then incumbent MLA.
Congress retained the seat through K P Ramakrishnan in 1965.
Later, the CPM won the seat through CBC Warrier by defeating the sitting MLA.
In 1970, the Left repeated victory through Warrier yet again. However, in the 1977 elections, CBC Warrier who had contested seeking a hattrick win failed.
This time, GP Mangalatha Madom won back the seat for Congress. In 1980, CBC Warrier who contested again for the Left won the seat back from the Congress.
In 1982, Congress entrusted the responsibility of winning back the seat lost to the Left to KSU leader Ramesh Chennithala, on an experimental basis.
In the debut, Chennithala defeated CPM candidate P.G. Thambi at a 4577 votes majority.
In 1986, at 29 years of age, Ramesh Chennthala was the youngest minister in Kerala, as he became part of the Karunakaran cabinet as the Minister for Rural Development.
Ramesh continues his winning streak in 1987 too. RSP candidate AV Thamarakshan, who was his opponent then, was defeated by a majority margin of 3817 votes.
However, in 1989, after Chennithala won in the Lok Sabha elections from Kottayam, he resigned as the legislator. But, Congress retained the seat through KK Sreenivasan in 1991.
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After two consecutive defeats, the constituency witnessed an overthrowing victory by RSP’s AV Thamarakshan in the 1996 elections.
It was after 14 years that a Left candidate won from Harippad.
In the 2001 elections, RSP allied with the UDF. CPM’s T K Devakumar won against the sitting MLA AV Tamarakshan.
In the 2006 elections, Congress won back the constituency. After a tough battle, Advocate B Babu Prasad defeated sitting CPM MLA for 1886 votes.
Assembly Elections 2011:
Ramesh Chennithala who had been the KPCC president for nine years continuously contested from Hairpad yet again.
Chennithala won the seat against CPI’s G Krishnaprasad for a majority margin of 5520 votes.
Chennithala reached the Assembly by gaining 50.03 per cent votes. In 2014, Chennithala became the Home Minister in the Oommen Chandy cabinet.
Assembly Elections 2016:
In the 2016 elections when Kerala witnessed a Left wave across the State, Harippad was the only constituency of the 9 in Alappuzha district which went for the UDF.
Ramesh Chennithala won at a whopping majority of 18621 votes against CPI’s P Prasad.
When the UDF gained a vote share of 51.05 per cent, LDF’s vote share dipped by 7.39 per cent compared to the previous elections.
NDA candidate D Ashwini Dev gained a vote share of 8.72 per cent. Ashwini Dev was the NDA candidate who aggregated the lowest number of votes from the Alappuzha district.
In the 2020 local body polls, the UDF has won Haripad Municipality, Arattupuzha, Cheruthana, Chingoli, Kumarapuram, Muthukulam, Thrikkunnappuzha panchayaths, while the LDF secured Karthikappally, Cheppad, Karuvatta and Pallippad panchayats.
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