Kasaragod: Twenty-five years ago, Kasaragod's Udma Grama Panchayat witnessed a hard-to-digest episode of democracy. With the Congress-led UDF and the CPM-led LDF tied at 10 members each, the panchayat president was to be chosen by a coin toss after the token vote.

But during the voting, CPM member M Lakshmi, now a 60-year-old block panchayat president, snatched and swallowed a UDF member's ballot paper. Result: 10-9. Outcome: CPM took charge of the panchayat.

Come 2025, the Delimitation Commission— headed by State Election Commissioner A Shajahan— has done something arguably more effective than swallowing a vote: it has surgically redrawn the panchayat map, flouting its own guidelines, to give the CPM-led LDF a clear edge.

"If we play by the new map, the UDF might win eight or nine wards by big margins but it won't come anywhere near the halfway mark ever," said Congress leader Thilakarajan, who has approached the High Court challenging the final delimitation order for Udma.

In an interim order dated May 27, Justice C S Dias of the Kerala High Court ruled that the final delimitation in Udma panchayat will be subject to the outcome of the petition, said UDF's counsel and senior IUML leader Adv Mohammed Shah. The judge posted the case, along with a similar petition from Naduvil for further hearing on June 12.

Making election redundant
Before and after Lakshmi's antics, the contest in Udma has always stayed razor-thin. The two fronts have a 44 per cent to 43 per cent vote share in the panchayat. In 2015, UDF won 11 seats to LDF's 10. In 2020, it flipped -- LDF took 10, UDF 9, and BJP opened its account with two. In Kottikulam, the BJP edged out the UDF by just one vote.

Against this backdrop, the Delimitation Commission kicked off the redrawing of panchayat wards by issuing guidelines and increasing the Udma panchayat's strength from 21 to 23 wards in September 2024.

Soon after, the panchayat secretary, tasked with overseeing the redrawing of the internal boundaries, was transferred.

The exercise was then led by junior clerk Pravavan P R, a resident of Pallam Thekkekkara ward, who is facing a departmental inquiry for marking attendance while attending a CPM Area Committee meeting, said IUML joint secretary and second petitioner Kappil Muhammed Shiyas.

Once the report was ready, it was signed by a newly appointed panchayat secretary from Kollam, just two weeks after taking charge.

As per the guidelines, ward populations must not deviate more than 10 per cent from the average, and boundaries should preferably follow natural or man-made features such as rivers, streams, hills, roads, or railway lines. The principle, rooted in Article 243C of the Constitution, ensures each elected representative speaks for roughly the same number of people -- avoiding over- or under-representation.

But in three wards, Mangad, newly formed Methal Mangad, and Bare, the population overshot the average by 12.75 per cent, 16.85 per cent, and 15.13 per cent, respectively. Meanwhile, Pallam Thekkekkara (No. 21) has 12 per cent fewer voters than the average ward. Eight other wards hover right at the 10 per cent ceiling, just enough to survive scrutiny.

Behind the violation lies a clear pattern of manipulation.

Take Bekal and Kottikulam, densely populated fisher community wards where the CPM has little ground, and the real contest is between the UDF and BJP. Around 75 per cent of Kottikulam's voters—1,265—were moved to Bekal to form the new Bekal ward (No 18), pushing its voter count to 2,866. When new voters are added, it could touch 3,000, nearly 45 per cent above the panchayat's average of 1,632, said Shiyas.

Congress leader V R Vidyasagar said the move effectively cut down the fisher community's representation in the panchayat to just one ward by merging Bekal and Kottikulam.

The BJP, which won Bekal by 232 votes in 2020, now faces a tough fight as the influx includes a significant number of UDF voters from Kottikulam.

Kottikulam, which the BJP won by a single vote, has now been turned into a Muslim majority ward, said Shiyas. Muslim settlements from Angakkalari (No 16) and Karippody (No 12) have been merged with the Muslim settlement in Kottikulam to form the new ward.

From a narrow edge, UDF now has a big lead in Kottikulam," said Shiyas. But the real design is this: Palakkunnu, Angakkalari, and Karippody, which the UDF won in 2020, will now slip into LDF's pocket by sheer cartographic engineering, he said.

'Cartographic engineering'
From the outside, Udma panchayat is known for housing three luxury resorts, Taj and Lalit. But within, it's Palakkunnu ward, home to the Kazhakam Shree Bhagavathi Temple, which is the crown jewel. For years, it has remained with the IUML.

"In this delimitation exercise, there was a concerted effort to snatch from us the ward, which is also the commercial hub of the panchayat," said Shiyas. "They violated every boundary rule to do that."

In 2020, the IUML held on to Palakkunnu with a lead of 103 votes over the CPM.

During the redrawing of Palakkunnu, a settlement of around 150 UDF voters, near Kappil River, to the east, was carved out and added to Koppal, a CPM stronghold. "To do that, the commission cut through private properties, which is unheard of," said Shiyas.

The Old BRDC Link Road, used as a boundary, ends in front of the gate of the Abbas and Nang family. But the commission approved a boundary that slices through their property, ignoring the natural stream, bridge, and the newer 9m-wide BRDC road that form a clear boundary.

Private plots were also bisected in Koppal ward (CPM) and Pallam Thekkekkara ward (UDF) to add more CPM votes to Palakkunnu. The commission even cut through Kottikulam railway station to bring in voters from Karippody. "There was no reason to shift voters from Karippody and Pallam Thekkekkara wards, violating the boundary norms. These two wards now have 9.68% and 12% fewer voters than the average," said Shiyas. "It was done solely to wrest Palakkunnu from the UDF.”

While the delimitation chipped away at the UDF’s edge across multiple wards, in Mangad, where the CPM had just a 42-vote lead, 12.75 per cent excess voters were added to firm up its hold. "Mangad ward was stretched 3 km to stitch together two CPM pockets, around 50 houses from Vedikunnu ward in the northwest and 70 from Aramanganam ward," said Thilakarajan. To understand how far that is, the entire panchayat spans just 6 km, said Shiyas.

Now, voters in Mangad have to travel 2.5 km to reach their polling booth.

Ironically, the Delimitation Commission cited "geography and access to polling stations" as reasons to justify its alleged gerrymandering in all wards.

Shiyas and Thilakarajan said they flagged these violations before the Delimitation Commission chairman, A  Shajahan, at the February 11 hearing in Kasaragod. "He directed the assistant secretary of the panchayat to make the corrections. But not one of the 41 suggestions we made was incorporated in the final notification," said Shiyas.

He said the UDF did not just raise complaints. "We gave clear solutions that didn't violate a single guideline. But none was accepted. That's why we've gone to court."