Vypeen swings between rival fronts

Contest wide open for constituency with Sarma not in the fray

Though the Vypeen Assembly constituency has swung between the two major fronts over the years, S. Sarma, the two-time sitting MLA, had turned it into a safe bet of sorts for the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in the last decade by notching up two back-to-back impressive victories.

In the first election in 2011 since the constituency, previously known as Njarakkal, was delimited and rechristened as Vypeen, Mr. Sarma emerged victorious with a margin of 4,958 votes and a vote share of 50.37% against his Congress rival Ajay Tharayil. He further tightened his grip five years later when he improved his vote share to 52.24% and almost tripled the lead to 19,353 against the Congress rival K.R. Subhash, one of the biggest victory margins for an LDF candidate in Ernakulam district in that election.

Little impact

But the LDF dominance had little impact in the Lok Sabha election held three years later when the Congress candidate from Ernakulam constituency, Hibi Eden, literally swept through the Vypeen Assembly constituency, comprising eight panchayats, to notch up an impressive lead of 23,241 votes against his immediate LDF rival P. Rajeev. Balance of sorts was restored in the last year’s local body poll when both fronts shared the spoils with the United Democratic Front (UDF) winning Mulavukad, Edavanakkad, Nayarambalam, and Elamkunnapuzha panchayats and the LDF bagging Kadamakkudy, Kuzhipilly, Njarakkal, and Pallippuram panchayats.

In the 14 elections since 1957, the constituency has voted for the Congress and the Left seven times each though Congress candidate K.C. Abraham made a formidable start by registering a hat-trick of victories in the elections held in 1957, 1960, and 1965.

Sudden spike

The LDF decision to replace Mr. Sarma, a formidable candidate, with debutant K.N. Unnikrishnan in the forthcoming election seems to have led to a sudden spike in the Congress aspirants for the Vypeen Assembly constituency with numerous names like that of former MP K.P. Dhanpalan, INTUC national secretary K.P. Haridas, former minister and MLA Dominic Presentation making the rounds.

Mr. Unnikrishnan is a member of the CPI(M) district secretariat and office-bearer of numerous trade unions. Mr. Sarma’s absence is likely to throw open the electoral arena like never before in the last decade.

V4 People and Twenty20 are also likely to field their candidates in the constituency. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is rumoured to be toying with the idea of taking back the seat from its ally, Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), this time. In the last election, the BDJS candidate managed to secure just 10,051 votes, which was marginally improved by the BJP Ernakulam Parliament constituency candidate, Alphonse Kannanthanam, to 14,940 votes in the Lok Sabha poll in 2019.