There are nine candidates in the race in Kalamassery, which is being looked upon as a prestige seat by the United Democratic Front (UDF) with the Muslim League fielding advocate V. E. Abdul Gafoor, the son of the sitting MLA V. K. Ebrahimkunju, as the official candidate.
There has been obvious opposition to the nomination of Mr. Gafoor to the contest as a large group of Muslim League workers gathered in Kalamssery earlier this month to protest against the nomination. A senior party leader, who spoke to The Hindu , said that the workers did not hold a rally last week as it would be against party discipline but the workers had expressed their dissatisfaction with the State leadership decision. The party workers had also conveyed their sentiments to the State leaders, he said.
Just as the dissatisfaction in the Muslim League, the recent gains in the elections to the local bodies has given a new confidence and impetus to the campaign by the Left Democratic Front, which is sensing a chance to capture the seat from the UDF with P. Rajeev, former member of Rajya Sabha, former district secretary of the CPI(M) and currently a party secretariat member going way ahead in his campaign to garner votes.
The NDA has fielded Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) candidate P. S. Jayaraj in the constituency.
The LDF had won 20 seats in the 42-member Kalamassery municipality and the Left Front feels that it is well poised to wrest power in the assembly constituency, that represents the working class in the State in a big way in the elections being held on April 6.
Mr. Ebrahimkunju, who won both in 2011 and 2016 was overlooked as he is among the key accused in the corruption case related to the Palarivattam flyover case. But it is a fact that Mr. Ebrahimkunju had defeated popular leaders A. M. Yousuf and K. Chandran Pillai in the previous two elections easily.
In the 2016 elections, in which 10 candidates were in the fray, the NDA constituent BDJS, represented by V. Gopakumar had garnered 24,244 votes, representing nearly 16 per cent votes. In 2011, in which there were 10 candidates in the fray, P. Krishnadas of the BJP had received 6.4 per cent of the votes with a total votes of 8,438 in his favour. The 2016 elections had seen 1.54 lakh votes being polled, which made up about 81 per cent of the total number of voters. In 2011, the polling was 1.31 lakh, making up about 79 per cent of the total number of voters.
The Kalamassery segment of the Ernakulam Lok Sabha constituency had seen Hibi Eden of the Congress party with majority share in the votes with 73,745 votes. P. Rajeev of the CPI(M) received 53,056 votes and Alphons Kannanthanam of the BJP received 21,026 votes in the 2019 elections.
Kalamassery's position as representing industrial workers is quite significant as it is home to two major industrial estates as well as major public sector undertakings, including the Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore.
The industrial areas in Eloor and Kalamassery, which is home to about 500 small and medium-sized industrial units, add weight to the status of the constituency.
