KATTAPPANA: Udumbanchola, which was the largest Assembly constituency in the state before the recent delimitation process, won’t have that distinction this time.
The constituency lost Ayyappancoil and Chakkupallam grama panchayats to the Peerumade assembly constituency after the delimitation process. According to the rules of delimitation process, a grama panchayat should not be divided into different constituencies. So Devikulam and the newly created tribal grama panchayat of Edamalakkudy were considered as part of Munnar grama panchayat, which further reduced the size of Udumbanchola.
The delimitation of constituencies is done on the basis of population and geographical factors.
A population of 2.5 lakh is taken as the base figure, and around 10 percent increase or decrease from this figure was permitted.
The Udumbanchola constituency consists of nine grama panchayats- Erattayar, Karunapuram, Nedumkandam, Pampadumpara, Rajakkad, Rajakumari, Santhanpara, Senapathy and Vandanmedu. The constituency has 76,228 male and 75,857 female voters as per the voter’s list brought out by the election department.
Known for its cardamom and pepper estates, the constituency has a large number of Tamil migrant population working in the plantations.
K K Jayachandran of the CPI(M) represented Udumbanchola constituency for the last two terms.