THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The direction poll sentiments will take in Kattakkada is anybody’s guess. For a seat that was initially a UDF stronghold, Kattakkada now has a two-time LDF MLA, and in the last Lok Sabha election, the NDA topped the assembly segment.
Much like its neighbouring constituencies in Thiruvananthapuram district, Kattakkada has seen triangular contests. Formed after the last delimitation exercise, in 2010, the constituency had Congress’ N Sakthan as its first elected legislator. However, the LDF took over the constituency in 2016 through former SFI leader I B Satheesh, who retained the seat in 2021.
Though not as impactful as an election victory, senior BJP leader and its former state president P K Krishnadas has contested in Kattakkada for three straight elections, securing up to 26% votes at one point. Even when the LDF and the UDF have not officially finalised their candidates, BJP sources said that Krishnadas is again the frontrunner to be the NDA candidate.
Forming a major part of the population, the Nair and Nadar communities are decisive factors in the constituency. While the local body elections did not offer an upper hand to any front, the results indicated a decline in the popularity of the Left front.
In the 2020 local polls, the LDF had won five of the six panchayats in the constituency, the other going to the UDF. But the tables turned in the 2025 elections, when all three fronts won two panchayats each: the LDF winning Kattakkada and Pallichal, the NDA wresting Maranalloor and Vilappil, and the UDF taking Malayinkeezhu and Vilavoorkal, the latter with the support of two independents.
A key part of the Attingal Lok Sabha constituency, the Kattakkada assembly segment saw the BJP making a breakthrough in the 2024 parliamentary polls when the party fielded former Union Minister V Muraleedharan as the NDA candidate. And he earned the most votes there. While Shobha Surendran, among the party’s more popular faces, managed to secure 40,692 votes (28.63%) in 2019, Muraleedharan increased the NDA vote count to 47,834 (35.37%).
This time, the LDF is likely to base its campaign on the developmental activities initiated in the constituency, including those in the higher education sector, like the construction of the APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University headquarters and the EV battery development hub at Vilappilsala.
Analysing the local body election pattern, MLA Satheesh said the grama panchayat results are indicators of local issues alone.
“Though the party has faced setbacks, our cakewalk wins in block and district panchayats guarantee a third term for LDF in the assembly constituency. Only the votes cast in district panchayats are political,” Satheesh said.
Amid the talk of a triangular fight, Satheesh stressed that, ultimately, the competition will be between the LDF and the UDF.
On its part, the UDF is set to refute all the development claims made by the Left, both in the state and the constituency.
“Though we haven’t made huge gains in the local body polls in Kattakkada, we have definitely improved our status. UDF won in two of the four district panchayat divisions within the assembly constituency,” remarked Malayinkeezhu Venugopal, UDF’s candidate there in 2021.
Congress sources said the party had asked its candidates from the last assembly elections to be active in activities like the SIR.
Meanwhile, riding high on the local body elections in which the party made its presence felt in all six panchayats within the Kattakkada constituency, the BJP is keen to transform that into a comfortable win in the assembly poll.
“We got over 47,000 votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Kattakkada alone. The NDA amassed the same number of votes in the local body elections too. And we are sure of pooling in all those votes in the assembly elections too,” said BJP Thiruvananthapuram south district president Mukkampalamoodu Biju.