NEW DELHI: In Kerala’s Kuttanad, Kerala Congress’ Reji Cheriyan emerged as the winner, defeating NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar)’s Thomas K. Thomas by 20,600 votes. Reji Cheriyan received 56,594 votes, while Thomas K. Thomas secured 35,994 votes. There were a total of 153026 registered voters on the electoral rolls for the 2026 Assembly election in Kuttanad Assembly constituency, of whom 75343 were male, 77683 female and 0 belonged to the third gender.Exit polls released for the high-stakes Kerala battle indicate a competitive contest, with the incumbent LDF government seeking a third consecutive term amid a strong challenge from the UDF.Kuttanad Assembly constituency, numbered 106, is located in Alappuzha and Kottayam districts of Kerala and falls under the Mavelikkara parliamentary constituency. Established in 1957 and redefined in the 2008 delimitation, it spans Kuttanad taluk’s iconic below-sea-level farmlands, panchayats like Champakulam, Edathua, Karuvatta, Muttar, Nedumudi, Pathiyoor, and Veliyanad, with around 195,000 electors. This general seat symbolizes Kerala’s unique paddy bowl — floating farms, toddy tapping, backwater canals, houseboat tourism, and fisherfolk — where communities navigate flooded fields via canoes amid Vembanad Lake’s vast expanse.CPI(M) of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) dominates via KC Venugopal as current MLA since 2016. In 2021, he secured 72,248 votes (49.15 per cent), defeating Congress’s Babu Prasad (64,389 votes) by 7,859 votes (5.35 per cent) at 78.92 per cent turnout — widening his 2016 margin of 3,446 and reclaiming from UDF’s 2011 hold. LDF’s farmer-labor unions leverage flood distress against UDF’s traditional sway and BJP’s 6-8 per cent share.Key issues include devastating floods drowning crops twice yearly, saline intrusion killing paddy yields, farmer suicides amid debt crisis, poor canal dredging and embankment breaches, fish stock depletion polluting backwaters, coir-toddy worker unemployment, youth migration, waste choking waterways, and demands for resilient farming tech, irrigation pumps, seafood hubs, eco-tourism upgrades, and climate adaptation. funds. These agrarian perils sustain LDF’s grip in Kuttanad’s poetic, flood-battered heartland.
