A youth constituency that came into existence after delimitation in 2011, Chirayinkzhiu’s heart has beaten to the Left Democratic Front (LDF) over the past decade.
Chirayinkeezhu was formed by merging the panchayats of Attingal, Kazakhutam and erstwhile Kilimanur constituencies. In the two assembly elections since then, in 2011 and 2016, there was little doubt as to where Chiryinkizhu’s loyalty was. Both times, V. of the Communist Party of India (CPI). Sasi won a comfortable victory to represent the constituency in the assembly.
local body
Chirayinkeezhu today consists of Chirayinkyzhu taluk and Kadinnamkulam taluks in Thiruvananthapuram taluk and Enchuthengu, Azur, Chiryinkizhu, Kadakkavoor, Kizhuvilam and Mudakkal panchayats in Mangalapuram panchayat.
In the 2011 assembly elections, Mr. Sasi, who was the first to represent the reserved constituency after his birth, fielded a Congress candidate. Defeated Vidyadharan by a margin of 12,225 votes. Mr. Sasi, a former member of the Travancore Devaswom Board and former Chairman of the Board of Farm Workers Welfare Fund, secured 59,601 votes as against 47,376 of Mr. Vidyadharan.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supported Independent candidate Athiyur Surendran in the election. Mr. Surendran, however, could manage only 2,078 votes.
In 2016, Mr. Sasi was pitted against KS Ajit Kumar of Congress. This time, Mr. Sasi strengthened his position by increasing his winning margin to 14,322; He polled 64,692 votes against 50,370 votes of Mr. Ajit Kumar. However, Mr. Sasi’s winning percentage decreased from 52.93% in 2011 to 47.12% in 2016.
After the gains made in some panchayats in the last local body elections, BJP fielded the then party state vice-president PP Vava. Mr. Wawa garnered 19,478 votes, increasing the party’s vote percentage substantially.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the Left Democratic Front candidate (LDF) A. Sampath established a majority of 11,482 votes over Bindu Krishna, the candidate of the United Democratic Front in Chirayinkizu. The party continued the momentum in local body elections by winning five gram panchayats and one block panchayat. BJP candidate Girijakumari S secured 8,377 votes from the constituency in the Lok Sabha elections.
However, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Chiraiankizhu stood with the UDF, Adoor Prakash as the LDF’s A. Gave a lead of 8,564 votes against Sampat.
In the recent local body elections, however, the LDF was prominent, winning 79 wards out of a total of 150. The UDF acquired 37 wards.
major issues
Chirayinkeezhu’s coir industry has been hit hard in recent times. With a large number of coir workers in the constituency, it will be interesting to see which way their vote goes. There are coastal panchayats in the constituency as well, and the problems of the fishing community will also be emphasized here.
The constituency has a total of 1,96,142 voters, including 89,494 males, 1,06,645 females and three from the transgender community.