The Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala was formed after the delimitation exercise in 2008. It has seven assembly constituencies from three districts: Mananthavady, Sulthan Bathery and Kalpetta assembly constituencies in Wayanad district; Eranad, Nilambur and Wandoor in Malappuram district; Thiruvambady seat in Kozhikode district. Mananthavady and Sulthan Bathery are Scheduled Tribe (ST) constituencies while Wandoor is a Scheduled Caste (SC) constituency.
Rahul Gandhi, who is seeking re-election in the Lok Sabha poll from Wayanad, is expected to visit the constituency on April 15-16. He will attend election campaigns at Sulthan Bathery, Mananthavady, and Kalpetta Assembly constituencies. He will also attend a farmers’ meeting at Pulpally and a workers’ meeting here. Gandhi will attend the UDF rally on the Kozhikode beach on the day.
He will lead campaigns and roadshows in the Thiruvambady Assembly constituency in Kozhikode and Eranad, Nilambur and Wandoor Assembly constituencies in Malappuram district on April 16.
The Congress and the Communist Party of India (CPI), which are part of the Opposition’s INDIA bloc, will be contesting against each other for the key Wayanad seat. Sitting MP Rahul Gandhi is being pitted against CPI-M’s senior leader Annie Raja – wife of CPI general secretary D Raja – and also the general secretary in the party’s National Federation of Indian Women. BJP’s Kerala unit chief, K Surendran, is also in the contest.
Let us look at the constituency more closely.
Wayanad district — also called Kerala’s hill district — was carved out of Kannur and Kozhikode as a separate district on November 1, 1980. With 40% of forest land and 31% of Kerala’s tribal population, Wayanad’s population as per Census 2011 is 8,17,420. The ST communities form 18% of district population while SC is around 4%.
In terms of religion, Wayanad district is dominated by the Hindu community, which forms 49% of the total population. Muslims and Christian constitute 29% and 21%, respectively.
While the Wayanad parliamentary seat, with the inclusion of three assembly constituencies falling in the Malappuram district, is dominated by the minority population with Muslims being the largest single population group.
Malappuram has 70% Muslim community share in its overall population mix, as per Census 2011 data. Kozhikode district, with one Wayanad assembly constituency, has 56% Hindus and 39% Muslims.
High proportion of Muslim population share in the four assembly constituencies outside Wayanad district changes the nature of the parliamentary constituency to be a minority dominated one as per the estimates drawn from the Census 2011 data.
Wayanad has three municipalities, Mananthavady, Sulthan Bathery and Kalpetta. Census 2011 defines Mananthavady and Sulthan Bathery as Wayanad’s sub-districts. Here, the religious population share of the areas within a district have been taken from the numbers belonging to the particular assembly constituency falling in that area, as noted by the Census 2011.
Mananthavady has 46% Hindus, 29% Muslims and 24% Christians. Religious population share in Sulthan Bathery is up to 58% Hindus, 17% Muslims and 25% Christians. Wayanad district’s headquarters are in the Kalpetta municipality which is part of the Vythiri taluk. As per Census 2011 figures, the Vythiri sub-district has 43% Hindus, followed by 41% Muslims and 15% Christians.
Thiruvambady assembly constituency of the Kozhikode district falls in the Kozhikode sub-district area. Census 2011 figures reveal this sub-district has 51% Hindus followed by 43% Muslims and 6% Christians.
Eranad sub-district, where the Eranad assembly constituency falls in Malappuram, has 72% Muslims and 26% Hindus. Nilambur and Wandoor fall in the Nilambur Taluk or Tehsil as per the official website of the Malappuram district. As per the Census 2011 figures, the Nilambur sub-district, with Nilambur and Wandoor assembly constituencies, has 58% Muslims followed by 33% Hindus and 8% Christians.
The average of the population base of Hindu, Muslim and Christians in all the seven assembly constituencies of Wayanad makes it a minority dominated Lok Sabha constituency. The Muslim community has a population share of 45.5% while Christians are estimated to be 12.5%. Together, they form 58% of Wayanad population with Hindus constituting 41.5%.
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