MALAPPURAM: How many Lok Sabha constituencies constitute Punjab? Can you name all the Parliament seats in Uttar Pradesh? Challenging questions that will have mere mortals scurrying for reference material! For Rijesh Ponnani, however, they pose no difficulty whatsoever. Even in the dead of night, he can respond to such queries with effortless ease. He became famous when he astounded television audiences by enumerating all 543 Lok Sabha constituencies with scarcely a pause, accomplishing the feat within a mere five minutes.
Demonstrating his prowess, Rijesh, a 41-year-old electronic technician who has incorporated his native town into his name, systematically sets out the names of constituencies by following the alphabetical order of states. He starts off with Andhra Pradesh and makes his way to West Bengal, before winding down with Union territories.
Recent videos of Rijesh putting his memory to the test in TV interviews have gone viral. “I started to read about Indian politics some years back. Apart from politics, I keep abreast with developments in cinema and sports. While reading about politics, including articles on the first Lok Sabha election, I learnt the names of all the constituencies. This kindled in me the desire to showcase my ability. In 2019, I got a chance to showcase my talent by naming all the 140 constituencies that make up the Kerala assembly. The recent LS election in the state offered me another chance to display my skills on television,” says Rijesh.
But, he first made the headlines much before this. In 2016, Rijesh proved that he could list out all assembly constituencies without a break in a few minutes. In 2018, he got the chance to perform for his favourite actor Mohanlal.
“Lalettan was on the sets of the movie 'Odiyan' in Malampuzha. When I approached him with the claim to be able to list the titles of the 342 movies he had acted in up to that point, I was allowed to meet him in person. I spelt out the names and release dates of all his 342 movies. Lalettan was so happy that he had me repeat the performance before his crew members,” says Rijesh. While memorising large chunks of interesting data is a hobby, his actual goal is to become a scriptwriter.
“My father died when I was young. Due to financial constraints at home, I dropped out of college while doing my pre-degree and started working as an electronic technician. However, my dream is to become a writer. I have published articles on politics and cinema on various online portals and newspapers,” he says.