Ernakulam has long been a Congress citadel where inner party bickering and not political rivals defeated the party candidates.
Whenever the inner party squabbles in Congress peaked, the LDF walked away with the seat. Thus noted literary critic M.K. Sanoo (in 1987) and mediaperson Sebastian Paul (in 2004) represented the constituency in the State Assembly.
This is one constituency where the Congress and the LDF had always listed to the wishes of the Latin Catholic Church while picking their candidates as it is the only constituency, where the community members could be safely fielded. The last election saw a political greenhorn Hibi Eden, the 27-year-old-son of George Eden, former MP and MLA, scoring an emphatic victory against Dr. Paul by a margin of 32,437 votes. As the Congress is all set to field Mr. Eden once again, the CPI(M) will assign the job to M. Anilkumar, a young leader who is also a district committee member of the party. The BJP has not been a major force to reckon with in the constituency and during the last election, its candidate C.G. Rajagopal could muster the support of only 6,355 votes. This time, the party has chosen to field its newly appointed district president M.K. Mohandas, also a novice in the political scene of the district.
