Will former CM Oommen Chandy's home turf lean to left this time?

Puthuppally helped Oommen Chandy achieve the rare feat of entering the list of stalwarts - Karunanidhi, K.R. Gouri Amma, K.M. Mani and the likes. Kerala is eagerly waiting to see if Chandy would be able to break the record set by K M Mani as a legislator representing the same constituency for the longest period.

Puthuppally (Kerala): Puthuppally assembly constituency in Kottayam District of Kerala has become synonymous with one name — Oommen Chandy, over the past many decades. Through former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who has completed 50 years in the Kerala Assembly, Puthuppally has also gained a place in the political history of Kerala. Puthuppally helped Oommen Chandy achieve the rare feat of entering the list of stalwarts like Karunanidhi, K.R. Gouri Amma, K.M. Mani and the likes who finished 50 years in state legislative assemblies. Kerala is eagerly waiting to see if Chandy would be able to break the record set by K M Mani as a legislator representing the same constituency for the longest period.

Soon after rumours that Oommen Chandy would represent Nemom instead of his own constituency Puthuppally, the people of Puthuppally who support Chandy came to the fore with dramatic and emotional expressions against such a move. There were suicide threats and road rokos by the Chandy lovers at Puthupally who were against their leader contesting from elsewhere. Such sights have been unprecedented during the Kerala elections.

With a declaration that he will not leave Puthuppally, Chandy announced his candidature at Puthuppally. Communist Party Marxist (CPM)’s young leader Jaick C Thomas is his opponent in Puthuppally this time also.

In the recent civic body polls, The LDF had made significant progress in the constituency under Jaick’s leadership from the front. The Left camp is hopeful that the setback Congress leader Chandy had faced from his own panchayath last time during the local body polls would repeat as a trend in the Assembly polls too. N Hari, the BJP state committee member, is the NDA candidate at Puthuppally.

Constituency History:

Puthuppally Constituency constitutes Akalakkunnam, Ayarkunnam, Kooroppada, Manarcaud, Meenadam, Pambadi, and Puthuppally panchayaths of Kottayam Taluk and Vakathanam Panchayath in Changanassery Taluk. Before the realignment of the constituency in 2018, Ayatkunnam, Kooroppada, Meenadam, Pambadi, Puthupalli, Pallikkathodu, Panachikkadu Panchayaths were in the Puthuppally constituency. At present, there 175959 voters, including 89914 women, 86042 men and 3 transgenders.

The electoral politics in Puthuppally constituency:

The constituency has elected only Oommen Chandy as their legislator in all eleven elections since 1970. Within 64 years since the formation of the State, only one Left MLA has reached the state assembly from Puthuppally.

In the first election in 1957, Congress candidate PC Cheriyan was elected as the first Legislator from Puthuppally. PC Cheriyan repeated the win in the 1960 elections

In 1967, CPM’s EM George was elected by the people of Puthuppally. George became the only Left legislator elected from Puthuppally so far.

In 1970, 27-year- old Oommen Chandy was entrusted by the then Congress leadership to win back the seat from the Left. While being the Youth Congress state president, Chandy, fondle called Kunjoonju, defeated George for a 7288 vote majority. That was also the lowest majority Chandy aggregated from Puthuppally in the next 50 years that followed.

In 1977, Chandy repeated victory By defeating Bharathiya Lok Dal candidate PC Cheriyan. In 1980, Chandy contested as the candidate of the newly formed Indian National Congress (U), formed after the Congress split. It was by 13659 votes majority against MRG Panikkar, who had contested as an independent candidate. The Congress candidate CK Mani could aggregate only 449 votes against Chandy in this election.

In 1982, Indian National Congress Socialist candidate Thomas Rajan was the opponent. Chandy aggregated 57.88 per cent votes and won at a majority of 15983.

Chandy defeated CPMs VN Vasavan in the 1987 elections. However, Vasavan’s performance gaining 41.34 per cent votes, reduced Chandy’s majority to 9,164 votes.

The 1987 election was the only one in which Chandy’s majority dropped below the 10000 marks since his first elections. While V N Vasavan came back for a second battle, Oommen Chandy has also regained his earlier might. Chandy retained the constituency aggregating a majority of 13811 votes. In 1996, Reji Sackariaya also tasted loss against Chandy.

The CPM, which was trying hard to put a stop to the Chandy trend, fielded Cheriyan Philip who had quit Congress as an independent candidate against Chandy. However, in the 2001 elections, Oommen Chandy defeated Cheriyan at a whopping majority of 12575 votes.

In 2006, Sindhu Joy, who was the national face of SFI, was the Left opponent fielded against Chandy. However, Chandy steadily rose his majority by 19863 contesting against Sindhu and retained Puthuppally.

In the 2011 elections, the Left Front fielded another woman candidate against Chandy in Puthuppally. Suja Susan George was defeated by Chandy by aggregating the highest majority till then - 33255 votes.

While the UDF aggregated 59.74 per cent of votes, the LDF managed to get just 31.33 per cent of votes. BJP candidate P Sunil Kumar could get only 6679 votes.

The Left wave in Kerala in the 2016 elections had not affected the attachment Puthuppally has with Oommen Chandy. SFI state president Jaick C Thomas, a young leader, was also defeated by Chandy at a huge majority of 27092 votes and the seat remained with the UDF. While Chandy got a vote share of 53.42 votes, Jaick got only 33.2 per cent. It was also in this elections that an NDA candidate’s vote share rose above 10 per cent for the first time in Puthuppally. NDA candidate Advocate George Kurian had aggregated 15993 votes and improved the performance of the NDA in a giant leap.

In the recent civic body polls, the LDF made a major hit and won back Puthuppally panchayath in 2020, after 25 years, giving a shocker to the UDF. In the elections which were led by Oommen Chandy himself, the UDF lagged behind even in Chandy’s ward.

The LDF won 6 out of the eight panchayats. Akalakkunnam, Manarcaud, Pambadi, Vakathanam, Kooroppada and Chandy’s Puthuppally leaned to the Left. Meanwhile, the UDF won only in Ayarkkunnam and Meenadam.

During the ensuing Assembly elections in April, Kerala is eager to know whether Puthuppally’s Oommen Chandy would win again and retain the Assembly seat.