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Kerala Legislative Assembly election, 2011

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13 April 2011
  
2016 →

42
  
98

30
  
30

42 seats, 42.98%
  
98 seats, 48.63%

72
  
68

8,002,874
  
7,846,703

Kerala Legislative Assembly election, 2011

The thirteenth legislative assembly election was held on 13 April 2011 to elect members of the 140 constituencies in Kerala. Election results were released on 13 May 2011. The results proved to be one of the closest elections in Kerala's history, with the UDF beating the LDF by a margin of 4 seats.

Contents

Parties and coalitions

There are two major political coalitions in Kerala. The United Democratic Front (UDF) is the coalition of centrist and centre-left parties led by the Indian National Congress. The Left Democratic Front (LDF) is the coalition of leftwing and far-left parties, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M). The right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is also contesting in the state and fielded candidates in 139 constituencies, with one seat to their NDA alliance partner Janata Dal (United).

Other Parties

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is contesting in all the 140 seats.

The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) contests in 6 seats in the state.

The Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) (SUCI) is contesting in 26 seats.

The Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) fielded candidates in 84 constituencies.

The Shiv Sena is contesting 44 seats, without any alliance with the BJP.

Seat allotment

Common election symbols are provided only to national parties and registered recognized state parties. Registered unrecognized parties are given free symbols as per availability, based on request.

UDF

The Indian Union Muslim League contests the elections as Muslim League Kerala State Committee.

LDF

§ R. Selvaraj won the election as a Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI (M)) candidate but later resigned and won again from Neyyanttinkara Constituency in by election

NDA

The official constituency wise list of candidates with their election symbols

Constituencies

There are 140 constituencies in Kerala, spread over 14 districts, based on the Delimitation commission of 2002. Many constituencies present in the 2006 elections become non-existent and 24 new constituencies came into existence following the delimitation.

Aranmula constituency in Pathanamathitta district is the only seat in the state that has over two lakh voters at 203,411.The constituency that has the second highest number of voters is Sultan Battery in Wayanad district with over 196,078 voters, followed by Kunnathur in Kollam district with over 190,322 voters. Kozhikode South constituency has the least number of voters with 130,254, followed by Ernakulam with 133,398 and Tanur in Malappuram district with 136,183 voters respectively.

Female voters outnumber the male voters in 127 of the 140 assembly seats.The Aranmula constituency has the highest number of female voters in the state, followed by Adoor with 102,336 and Manalur with 102,300 females.

Peerumedu constituency has the most number of polling booths, with 195 booths.

Thiruvananthapuram district has the largest number of 100 candidates in the fray the least number of 17 candidates is in Wayanad.

Poonjar constituency has the maximum number of candidates, 13. The least number of candidates is 4, in the constituencies of Sulthanbathery, Alathur, Malampuzha and Kaduthuruthy.

Salient points

V. S. Achuthanandan started the LDF campaign in Malampuzha, Palakkad on 21-Mar-2011.

An Asianet News journalist was allegedly roughed up by P. Jayarajan, a senior legislator of Kerala's ruling Left Democratic Front after a chat show in Kannur.

The use of a helicopter by KPCC chief Ramesh Chennithala in poll campaign was criticised by LDF.

The Supreme Court upheld the Election Commission's order directing the state government to defer its decision to extend a scheme for providing rice at Rs.2 per kg to all ration card holders that was announced on the eve of the assembly elections.

Former UDF M.L.A. Sobhana George who gave nomination to contest as an Independent candidate from Chenganoor later withdrew her candidature. Janakeeya Vikasana Munnai leader M. R. Murali also withdrew his nomination from contesting polls in Shoranur.

UDF manifesto

The main promises in the UDF manifesto are:-

  1. 36 lakh jobs for the unemployed youth.
  2. 25 kg of rice at Re one a kg rice for Below Poverty Line families and at Rs two per kg to others.
  3. Farm loans at three per cent interest.
  4. Free bi-cycles to class X students.
  5. Setting up of pepper and horticulture boards.
  6. Back-door appointments to be reconsidered.
  7. Interest-free loans for purchasing computers and motorbikes for students.
  8. Making Kochi Metro project a reality.
  9. Ensuring electricity connections to all households within one year.
  10. Exploitation by operators of other state lotteries to be stopped.

LDF Manifesto

The main promises in the LDF manifesto are:-

  1. Amend the Lok Ayukta rules to provide information to public regarding the assets owned by public figures within and outside the country and to ensure transparent and corruption-free administration..
  2. Extension of Rs 2 per kg rice scheme to all sections.
  3. Increase old age pension from Rs 400 to Rs 1000.
  4. Creation of 25 lakh jobs in non-farm sectors and increasing the state spending on infrastructure projects.
  5. A subsidy of Rs 20 per litre for kerosene for the weaker sections..
  6. Several sops for women and children with various empowerments schemes totalling Rs 7500 crore..
  7. The maternity leave with wage for women worker in unorganised sector would be increased to three months from the present one month..
  8. All the school children would be given free meal, uninforms and textbooks..
  9. A welfare-cum-pension scheme for employees of places of worship of all religions will be introduced..
  10. The operations of other-state lotteries would be contained while protecting Kerala state lottery.
  11. Total electrification of the state in six months.
  12. Cent per cent drinking water supply in five years.

Pre-poll surveys

  • The Asianet opinion survey released on 9-Mar-2011 predicts 77 to 87 seats for UDF, 53 to 63 seats for LDF and 0 to 5 seats for BJP.
  • The second round survey by Asianet News on 31-Mar-2011 changes the tally as follows: UDF 80 to 90; LDF 50 to 60: BJP 0 to 2.
  • The opinion survey conducted by Institute for Monitoring Economic Growth, predicted on 31-Mar-2011 that the UDF will get 72–82 seats and the LDF will get 58–68 seats in the elections.
  • The opinion poll conducted by Mail Today-India Today-Headlines Today-Aaj Tak-ORG, announced on 1-April-2011 predicts 96 seats to the UDF and only 41 seats to the ruling LDF, with others getting 3 seats.
  • Post-poll surveys

  • The post-poll study by the Centre for Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) done for The Week, Manorama News and CNN-IBN released on the 10-May-2011 predicted 69 to 77 seats for LDF and 63 to 71 seats for UDF, giving a slight advantage to LDF for the first time.
  • The third and final survey conducted by Centre for Forecasting and Research (C fore) in association with Asianet released on 10-May-2011 has again changed their predictions as follows: UDF 72 to 82; LDF 58 to 68; BJP 0 to 2
  • The Headlines Today-ORG polls, released on 10-May-2011, predicted that the UDF would win 85 to 92 seats and the LDF would win 48 to 55 seats.
  • Star News survey predicted that the UDF is expected to win 88 seats while the LDF will win 49 seats.
  • The Congress-backed Jai Hind TV channel predicted that the UDF will win 86–96 seats and the LDF would have to settle for 44–54 seats.
  • News24 channel in association with 'Today's Chanakya Agency' predicts UDF 84-102; LDF 35-53; BJP 0-6 .
  • Exit poll by 'CVB News-C-Voter' gave UDF 83–91, LDF 49–57 and BJP 1–4 seats.
  • Election

    The thirteenth legislative assembly election was held on 13 April 2011. The filing of nominations for the elections ended on 26 March 2011. A total of 1373 contestants filed nominations. The scrutiny of nominations took place on 29 March 2011. According to the latest revised electoral list, there are a total of 22,878,767 voters, with 11,919,652 women and 10,959,115 men. There are 20,758 polling booths in 11,662 polling locations in the state.

    A total of 971 candidates contested the elections, after the withdrawal of nominations closed.

    Voting

    The polling to elect members of assembly from the 140 constituencies in Kerala was held successfully on 13 April 2011. 75.12 per cent voter turn out was recorded in the state. The district wise and constituency wise polling percentage is as given below.

    Re-polling was conducted on two polling stations in the state on 16-April-2011, in the Legislative Assembly constituencies of Pattambi and Chalakkudy.

    Results

    The Election resulted in a slender victory for the UDF coalition winning 72 out of the 140 assembly seats while the incumbent LDF garnered the remaining 68 seats. The UDF lead was further extended to 73 through the subsequent by-election in Neyyattinkara constituency in which the incumbent MLA, R. Selvaraj, resigned from LDF to join UDF and got re-elected.

    Constituency-wise detailed results

    Note:-

  • (SC) - Constituency reserved for Scheduled caste candidates.
  • (ST) - Constituency reserved for Scheduled tribe candidates.
  • By-elections

    1.Piravom Bye-election was held in Piravom assembly constituency following the death of sitting MLA and minister T. M. Jacob on 30-Oct-2011.

    2.Neyyattinkara By-election was held in Neyyattinkara assembly constituency following the resignation of sitting MLA R. Selvaraj on 09-Mar-2012.

    3.Aruvikkara Bye-election was held in Aruvikkara assembly constituency following the death of sitting MLA and SPEAKER G. Karthikeyan

    Assembly seat sharing post the Bye Election results:

    References

    Kerala Legislative Assembly election, 2011 Wikipedia