Steeped in history, Paravur, the northern suburb of Kochi, has many a tale to tell. The beginning of the town’s modern political story could be traced back to 1957 when Kerala voted in its first Assembly election.
Paravur (formerly Parur) has backed both the political fronts. The Congress may claim an edge when the wins are counted, but the segment has supported the Left ideology as well.
The turn of this millennium saw the rise of V D Satheesan, who posted four consecutive wins in Paravur since 2001.
Paravur had been backing the Congress and CPI since 1957, barring the 1973 by-election when it voted for CPM.
Considered to be a CPI seat, the Left last won the segment in 1996. The repeated loss of Paravur prompted the CPM to demand the constituency, which was rejected.
In 1957, N Sivan Pillai of the unified communist party had won the seat, defeating K I Mathew by a margin of 2,088. But Congress hit back through K A Damodaran Menon, who garnered 3,998 votes more that Sivan Pillai.
K T George had a successful run in three elections from 1965. He defeated K G Raman Menon of SSP in 1965, repeated the win two years later by vanquishing P Gangadharan of the CPM. With the third win in 1970, George became the State Finance Minister. He collapsed and died while presenting the Budget in the Assembly.
Mathew’s unexpected death led to a by-poll in Paravur, and a CPM-backed independent, Varkey Painadan, defeated A C Jose of the Congress by 6,158 votes. Painadan could not repeat the performance in 1977, as Xavier Arakkal reclaimed the segment for the Congress.
In 1980, A C Jose of Congress (Antony) defeated UDF-backed independent K P George.
Paravur has an important place in Indian electoral politics. The first electronic machine was used here in 1982, when N Sivan Pillai made a grand comeback after 25 years defeating A C Jose by 123 votes. Jose challenged the result, and the Supreme Court ordered a re-poll using ballet papers in 50 booths where EVMs were used. The re-poll held in 1984 went in favour of Jose, as he defeated Pillai by 1,446 votes.
Jose’s win, however, was short-lived. Pillai exacted revenge by defeating Jose by 2,366 votes in 1987. IN 1991 P Raju of the CPI defeated Dr Kartha Punathil of the NDP.
In 1996 Congress deployed V D Satheesan to capture Paravur. The strategy failed as Paravur re-elected Raju, but Satheesans’ winning streak began in 2001 by defeating the sitting MLA.
In the elections that followed, K M Dinakaran (2006), Panniyan Raveendran (2011) and Sharada Mohan (2016) failed to rein in Satheesan. In the previous polls, Satheesan won by 20,364, the largest margin in the segment’s history.
All eyes are now on Paravur. Will Satheesan post his fifth consecutive win? Or will the LDF stop the Satheesan juggernaut? Wait till May 2 for the answer.
