NEW DELHI: In Kerala's Haripad constituency, Indian National Congress (INC) candidate Ramesh Chennithala secured a decisive victory in the 2026 Assembly election, garnering 68,184 votes. He defeated Communist Party of India (CPI) candidate T.T. Jismon by a margin of 23,377 votes. Jismon received 44,807 votes. The Haripad Assembly constituency had a total of 1,83,512 registered voters, comprising 87,373 males, 96,135 females, and 4 individuals belonging to the third gender.
Haripad Constituency Overview
Haripad, numbered 107, is located in Alappuzha district and falls under the Alappuzha parliamentary constituency. Established in 1957 and refined during the 2008 delimitation, it covers the Haripad Municipality and panchayats such as Chettikulangara and Mannanchery. The area includes coastal and riverine regions along the Pampa River where it meets Vembanad Lake, with approximately 205,000 electors. This general seat is known for its blend of paddy cultivation, coconut groves, fishing hamlets, coir industries, and temple tourism, including the famous Chettikulangara Kuthiyottam festival. The region enjoys rural prosperity amid backwaters, canals, and seasonal vibrancy.
Political Dynamics
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) has held a strong presence here since 2016, with Ramesh Hegde as the current MLA. In the 2021 election, Hegde won convincingly with 73,859 votes (49.82 per cent), defeating Congress's Shibu Baby John who received 67,412 votes. The margin of victory was 6,447 votes (4.35 per cent) at a turnout of 78.65 per cent. This reversed the United Democratic Front's (UDF) edge from 2011 and built on the narrow 1,877-vote margin in 2016 against the same rival. The LDF's farmer and fisher base typically edges out the UDF's traditional sway and the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) 5-7 per cent share in this bellwether constituency.
Key Issues
Critical issues in Haripad include monsoon flooding that submerges farmlands, saline water intrusion harming paddy cultivation, coastal erosion, fish depletion due to overfishing and pollution, distress among coir workers amid mechanization, youth unemployment leading to migration, poor rural roads and drainage, waste dumping in waterways, and demands for embankment strengthening, irrigation modernization, seafood clusters, temple infrastructure, and climate-resilient farming. These agrarian and maritime challenges sustain intense contests between the LDF and UDF in Haripad's culturally rich lowlands.
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