The Kalamassery segment, carved out from the old Aluva constituency, sent a UDF candidate, Indian Union Muslim League’s V.K. Ibrahim Kunju, to the Assembly in its maiden Assembly polls in 2011.
The segment comprises Alangad, Kadungalloor, Kunnukara, and Karumallur grama panchayats besides Eloor and Kalamassery municipality, with a total electorate of 1,86,070 as per the electoral roll on January 1 this year. There are 95,658 women voters and 90,412 men voters.
A chunk of Ernakulam’s industrial area is part of the constituency but it also has large tracts of agricultural land. Despite the Periyar enriching its environs, unmitigated industrial pollution coupled with scarcity of drinking water has remained a teething issue here. Thought to have a traditional tilt towards the UDF, local bodies in the constituency sprang a surprise in the recent elections to panchayats and municipalities by electing the LDF in all the grama panchayats barring Kunnukara, while the two municipalities were divided between the LDF (Eloor) and the UDF (Kalamassery).
The road infrastructure he was able to upgrade in the constituency as a Minister for Pubic Works would come handy for Mr. Kunju as he seeks the people’s mandate yet again. CPI(M)’s A.M. Yousuf, a former MLA from Aluva, would be seeking to raise issues of alleged corruption in the Public Works Department, pollution, labour issues in the industrial belt that is not exactly in the pink of its health, and forcing a solution in consultation with the local bodies for the ever-mounting waste management menace.
