The Central Travancore Assembly constituency of Thiruvalla had sent G. Padmanabhan Thampi of the undivided Communist Party of India as its first representative to the State Legislature in 1957. But it had shown an inclination to veer away from the Left moorings in most of the elections that followed, apparently giving a UDF tag to it.
Though Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate Mathew T. Thomas of the Janata Dal(S) had won the polls in the last two consecutive Assembly elections in Thiruvalla, the United Democratic Front (UDF) displayed its upper hand in the Assembly segment, bagging the highest number of votes there in the Parliament election.
This time, the writing on the wall is suggestive of a three-cornered contest in Thiruvalla. Mathew T. Thomas will be the LDF candidate this time too. Mr. Thomas is most likely to lock horns with Kerala Congress (M) general secretary Joseph M. Puthusserry, former MLA of the erstwhile Kalloppara Assembly segment, parts of which have been attached to the Thiruvalla as part of the delimitation process this time.
The Bharat Dharma Jana Sena’s decision to field Tantri Akkeeramon Kalidasa Bhattathirippad as the National Democratic Alliance candidate makes the contest three-cornered, especially since the BJP by itself had garnered as many as 28,000 votes, winning two panchayats and 33 local body members from the Assembly segment in the local bodies election. This is against the 7,656 votes it had polled in the 2011 Assembly polls and 16,800 votes from the Assembly segment in the 2013 Lok Sabha election.
