Attingal (Kerala) : The Attingal Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala threw up a suspense thriller triangular contest between LDF, UDF and BJP, in which UDF's Congress candidate Adoor Prakash finally winning with a slender margin of 1,708 votes. In this keen fight, the LDF and UDF candidates kept alternating between the first and second positions through many rounds of counting.
Adoor Prakash secured first position by polling 3,22,884 votes, pushing V Joy into second position with 3,21,176 votes. In the first few rounds, UDF's Congress candidate and sitting MP Adoor Prakash was ahead, but later V Joy of the Left Front regained the lead. Not far behind them, Union Minister and BJP candidate V Muraleedharan also gave a tough fight.
Through several rounds of vote counting, the lead changed between rivals, but never crossed two thousand votes. Adoor Prakash secured victory for the second time in Attingal eventually, defeating CPM Thiruvananthapuram District Secretary V Joy by a majority of 1708 votes. Union Minister and NDA candidate V. Muraleedharan came third. In 2019, Adoor Prakash captured the LDF stronghold by defeating A Sampath of the CPM.
PL Prakash and S Prakash who contested as independents got 1673 votes and 703 votes. NOTA polled about ten thousand votes. Adoor Prakash thanked the party workers for the victory.
With the arrival of Union Minister Muraleedharan, Attingal witnessed a photo finish. Attingal Lok Sabha Constituency includes Varkala, Atingal, Chirainkeesh, Nedumangad, Vamanapuram, Aruvikara and Kattakkada assembly constituencies. In the last election Adoor Prakash got a majority 38247 votes, polling 380995 votes while Sampath got 342748 votes.
On the Sabarimala issue, a section of Hindu voters went in favour of the BJP. As the Sabarimala issue was burning, the BJP vote share increased, prompting the saffron party to field Union Minister Muraleedharan himself in the constituency this time.
The Attingal Lok Sabha constituency had been an LDF stronghold all throughout, but in 2019, Adoor Prakash wrested the seat from sitting MP A Sampath. Attingal, like many other parliamentary constituencies in Kerala, has a mix of hills, midlands, and coastal regions, and poses quite a challenge for candidates to reach out to the people to seek votes.
Muraleedharan's entry and systematic campaign made the contest even more interesting, as key BJP leaders and union ministers S Jaishankar and Nirmala Seetharaman campaigned for him.
Caste equation is important in Attingal. Eezhava, Nadar and Latin Catholic community voters play a crucial role in deciding who will win from this constituency.
2024 contest: The total number of registered voters in this constituency in 2024 polls was 1396807, and the seat saw a voting turnout of 69.48% (970517 total count of votes), according to the Election Commission’s data. The seat went to polls in phase 2 on April 26, 2024.
In the 2019 LS Polls, Adoor Prakash of Congress won from the seat, polling 380,995, comprising 37.91% of the total number of votes polled. He defeated CPI’s Dr. A. Sampath by a margin of 38,247 votes. In 2014, Sampath had registered his second consecutive victory from this seat, polling 392,478 votes (45.67%) and defeating Bindhu Krishna of Congress by a margin of 69,378 votes.
