Sulthan Bathery is the second Assembly segment allotted for the Scheduled Tribe category among the three Assembly segments in Wayanad district.
The constituency is known as the land of tribespeople and settler farmers and their votes will be a decisive factor in the Assembly elections.
Though the segment has favoured the United Democratic Front (UDF) ever since the inception of the Assembly constituency in 1977, the LDF won it in 1996 and 2006.
Local body polls
The last Lok Sabha and local body polls also revealed that the segment is favouring the UDF.
In the Lok Sabha polls last year, the UDF got a margin of 70,465 votes in the constituency. The UDF won a majority in six of the eight grama panchayats in the local body polls recently. However, the LDF won in the Sulthan Bathery municipality and Ambalavayal grama panchayat.
I.C. Balakrishnan, the sitting MLA of the Congress, defeated Rugmini Subrahmanian of the CPI(M) with a margin of 11,198 in the 2016 Assembly polls. Mr. Balakrishnan secured 75,747 votes and Ms. Subrahmanian got 65,549 votes. Mr. Balakrishnan had defeated E.A. Sankaran of the CPI(M) with a margin of 7,583 votes in the 2011 Assembly polls.
The LDF has decided to field M.S. Viswanathan, who recently resigned from the post of KPCC State secretary and joined the CPI(M). Mr. Balakrishnan is likely to be the UDF candidate for the third time in the segment.
There are 2,17,059 voters in the constituency, consisting of 1,10,515 women and 1,06,544 men.
