46 women in 40 seats: Who will make it to the Kerala Assembly?

In the 15th Kerala Legislative Assembly, there were 11 women MLAs. All but one, CPI's C K Asha, are seeking a fresh mandate.

In the 2026 election, the three mainstream fronts — the Congress-led UDF, the CPM-led LDF, and the BJP-led NDA — have fielded 46 women out of 420 candidates for 140 seats, about 11 per cent. Their contests are spread across 40 constituencies. The UDF has fielded 12 women, while the LDF and the NDA have given tickets to 18 and 16 candidates, respectively.

In a two-part series, Onmanorama reviews 40 contests in 14 districts featuring 46 women candidates. Part-1 covers 7 districts.

Kasaragod 
NDA is the only major front to field a woman in the Kasaragod district with five constituencies.

Kasaragod segment 

The BJP has fielded its district president, M L Ashwini (40), who takes on the Muslim League district president, Kallatra Mahin (62). The seat remains a Muslim League stronghold. The LDF has fielded Shanavas Padhoor (46), a former district panchayat vice-president, as an Independent.

 Kannur 
The NDA has no woman candidate in Kannur's 11 segments.

Peravoor

The LDF fields its biggest name, K K Shailaja (69), in Peravoor, a Congress safehouse. The CPM central committee member and four-time MLA faces a clear brief: unseat Congress state president Sunny Joseph (73), a three-time MLA here. Her only Assembly defeat came at his hands in Peravoor in 2011. The NDA has fielded Paily Vathiyattu (71) of the Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), with a modest base.

Taliparamba

In Taliparamba, a CPM citadel, the party has brushed aside the sentiments of grassroots workers and leaders to field P K Shyamala (65), a two-time municipal chairperson and wife of state secretary M V Govindan. The move has sparked a revolt: senior district secretariat member T K Govindan (75) is in the fray as an Independent, backed by the UDF. The BJP has fielded former Kannur district president N Haridas (58).

Kuthuparamba

In Kuthuparamba, the IUML rolls the dice with Jayanthi Rajan (46), a rare woman face in its leadership. From Wayanad’s Kunduvadiyan adivasi community and a Congress family, she rose quickly, becoming IUML's national assistant secretary in 2025.

Kuthuparamba has long stayed with the socialist parties within the LDF. She takes on RJD's P K Praveen (56), nephew of sitting MLA K P Mohanan. The BJP has fielded Adv. Shijilal (49), a former panchayat member.

Wayanad

The LDF has not fielded a woman in the district’s three constituencies.

Mananthavady

In Mananthavady, the Congress fields Usha Vijayan (46), a grassroots leader and block panchayat member, against sitting CPM minister O R Kelu (57). A former Edavaka grama panchayat president and mandalam chief, she banks on the UDF’s entrenched network.

The seat swung to the CPM in 2016 after Congress’s P K Jayalakshmi lost ground post her tenure as minister. Kelu has held it since. Still, the UDF retains depth here. In the local body elections, the UDF got an 11,353-vote lead over the LDF. But over two terms, Kelu has cemented his position. The BJP, with a sub-10 per cent vote share, has fielded P Shyamraj (37). 

Sulthan Bathery

In Sulthan Bathery, the fight is largely between the UDF and the LDF. The seat, held by Congress's IC Balakrishnan (50) since 2011. The LDF has again fielded M S Viswanathan (54), who lost by 11,822 votes in 2021 after crossing over from the Congress. With a sizable Kuruma presence, the demand for a candidate from the community is seen as working in his favour.

The BJP has fielded Kavitha A S (48), a grassroots worker who has twice lost municipal polls here. The NDA had briefly raised its vote share in 2016 with C K Janu, but slipped in 2021; Janu is now with the UDF. 

Kozhikode
Kozhikode, with 13 constituencies, is the first northern district where all three fronts have fielded women. The UDF leads with three candidates, while the LDF and the NDA have one each.

Nadapuram

In Nadapuram, the LDF has fielded CPI's National Council member Adv P Vasantham Puthussery (67). The seat has stayed with the CPI since 1967. In 2021, E K Vijayan won by 4,035 votes against Congress district president Praveen Kumar. The UDF, however, held a narrow lead in the local body polls. The UDF has fielded Youth Congress leader K M Abhijith (31), a protest face who has taken on the government and become a victim of police excess, which is now a poll plank. In 2021, contesting from Kozhikode North, he pushed up the Congress vote share by 6 points to 33.5 per cent but lost to Thottathil Ravindran.

Kozhikode North

In Kozhikode North, the BJP fields Navya Haridas (41), a councillor since 2015 and a by now familiar pick for the party. She hit the spotlight when pitted against Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the Wayanad Lok Sabha bypoll in November 2024. 

In Kozhikode North, the main contest is between the incumbent, Thottathil Ravindran (78), a former Kozhikode mayor, and AICC member and backroom strategist K Jayanth (53). Ravindran won by nearly 13,000 votes last time.

The BJP’s vote share here stands at around 22 per cent.

Vadakara

The UDF’s most charged contest centres on K K Rema (55) of the RMP-I. Her husband, T P Chandrasekharan, was hacked to death in 2012 after he broke away from the CPM. Rema lost in 2016, but with UDF backing in 2021, she wrested the seat from the LDF by 7,491 votes. The LDF has fielded RJD's M K Bhaskaran (68). The BJP, with a marginal presence, has named K Dileep (50). Two candidates with the name Rama are also jostling for her votes.

Perambra

In Perambra, the IUML fields Fathima Thahiliya (34), a rising face in the party. She helped found Haritha, the women’s wing of the MSF, in 2012, and is running an energetic campaign in this LDF bastion.

She takes on LDF convenor T P Ramakrishnan (75), a former Excise and Labour minister who has held the seat since 2016, with the CPM entrenched here since 1980. The BJP has fielded M Mohanan (62), with a limited base.

Elathur

In the scenic Elathur, the Congress fields Vidya Balakrishnan (40), a lawyer and former councillor of the Kozhikode corporation with a decade-long tenure. Since 2011, the seat has been held by Forest Minister A K Saseendran (80). But his party, the NCP, has split. Saseendran is now in the NCP-Sharad Pawar. The other NCP has fielded a namesake, P K Saseendran (62), in the fray. The minister has faced criticism over rising human-animal conflict. In local bodies, the UDF and the LDF are evenly matched. The BJP, with around 20 per cent vote share, has fielded T Devadas.

Malappuram 
The UDF has an all-male slate across the district’s 16 constituencies. The LDF has two women in the fray; the NDA, three.

Malappuram

In Malappuram assembly constituency, the BJP fields Aswathi Gupthakumar (58) in a seat held by the IUML since 1957. The League has put up its tallest face, P K Kunhalikutty (74). K T Mujeeb Rahman (51) of the NCP-SP is the fray from the LDF. The BJP’s vote share here hovers around 5 per cent.

Kondotty

In Kondotty, the CPM fields P Jiji (36), a Manjeri area committee member and sharp orator, against IUML’s T P Ashrafali (43) in a League pocket borough. Ashrafali is Youth League's National General Secretary. Jiji, a former Calicut University Union chairperson  comes from a labourer family. In 2021, she took on P K Kunhalikutty in Vengara, but her party's vote share slipped by four percentage points to around 30 per cent, and he won by over 30,000 votes. The LDF trails here, roughly 40 per cent to the IUML’s 50 per cent. The BJP, with 7 per cent vote share, has P Subrahmannian (55) in the fray.

Kottakkal

In Kottakkal, the CPM fields Preethi Konchath (52), a Pravasi Sangham state committee member and local committee member from Kuttippuram. She takes on three-time IUML MLA K K Abid Hussain Thangal (65) in a League stronghold with over 50 per cent vote share. For the LDF, the seat was earlier contested by CPM ally NCP, which commands around 40 per cent. The NDA has fielded Subramanian Chungappalli (72) of the BDJS.

Manjeri

In Manjeri, the BJP fields Padmasree Ajith (37), while the main fight is between IUML’s M Rahmatulla (65) and the LDF-backed Independent Mustafa V M (52).

Tanur

In Tanur, the BJP fields Deepa Puzhakkal (54) in a contest centred on the UDF and the LDF. The UDF has IUML’s student leader P K Navas (36), while the LDF backs Muhammed Sameer of the National Secular Conference (NSC). The seat is being held by Sports Minister V Abdurahiman, who wrested it in 2016 and retained it in 2021, but has now shifted to Tirur, after sensing trouble. The BJP’s vote share here is around 7 per cent.

Palakkad
Palakkad is the only district witnessing an all-woman contest. But the spotlight is firmly on Sobha Surendran in Palakkad. The district has 12 segments.

Palakkad

In Palakkad, a Congress pocket since Shafi Parambil’s 2011 win, margins stay thin in a triangular fight with the BJP and the LDF. In the 2024 bypoll, Rahul Mamkootathil won by 18,840 votes, helped by a disgruntled BJP cadre staying away. They wanted Sobha Surendran (52), the party’s biggest vote-catcher, and they have got her now. 

She takes on Congress’s Ramesh Pisharody (45), the UDF’s reset after the Mamkootathil fiasco. Palakkad-born Pisharody is a much-watched stand-up comedian-actor with a steady political head. The LDF backs Independent N M R Razack (51), a restaurateur, hoping for Muslim consolidation to move up from third. In local bodies, the UDF leads the BJP by 11,572 votes, with the LDF in second.

Kongad

In Kongad, both the UDF and the NDA field women to unseat CPM’s incumbent MLA K Shanthakumari (55). The BJP has Renu Suresh (49), its Mahila Morcha state president, while the UDF fields Thulasi K A (52), Congress state general secretary, history professor, and wife of two-time Palakkad MP V K Sreekandan, a backroom strategist. Kongad, originally with the IUML, has been prised open for Thulasi, part of Sreekandan’s wider boardroom play across Palakkad. If he has made the move, it is with a path in mind. CPM rebel P K Sasi, who has a say here, is now in the UDF corner.

Renu Suresh is a vote-catcher, too. In 2016, she lifted the BJP’s share by 10 percentage points to 18 per cent in Kongad; that year, the Congress lost 8. Today, the UDF is near 30 per cent. In 2021, Shanthakumari won by 27,219 votes with 49 per cent vote share.

Thrissur
The UDF has not fielded a woman in Thrissur, with 13 constituencies. The LDF has two in the fray, including minister R Bindu, while the BJP’s prominent face is Padmaja Venugopal.

Thrissur

In Thrissur, the 2021 vote shares tell the story: LDF at 34.25 per cent, UDF 33.52 per cent, NDA 31.30 per cent. That's the end of the fight. 

The BJP fields Padmaja Venugopal (65), daughter of Veteran Congress leader K Karunakaran and sister of K Muraleedharan, the Congress's saffron checker. As the Congress candidate in 2021, she lost by 946 votes to CPI's P Balachandran. BJP's Suresh Gopi trailed her by 2,860 votes, but he increased the party's vote share by 10 points. In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, Suresh Gopi surged, leading in six of seven assembly segments that make up the constituency. Just before the stellar election, Padmaja quit the Congress and joined the BJP, right in time for the party. She blamed the party infighting for her defeat in 2021.

This time, she is taking on CPI's Alankode Leelakrishnan (66), a poet, and the Congress's Rajan J Pallan (63), a former mayor of Thrissur corporation.

Irinjalakuda

In Irinjalakuda, the LDF banks on R Bindu (58), Minister for Higher Education and Social Justice, to retain the seat. An English professor, she is married to CPM politburo member A. Vijayaraghavan. She faces UDF’s Adv Thomas Unniyadan (67), MLA here from 2001 to 2016. In 2016, CPM’s K U Arunan defeated him by 2,711 votes; in 2021, Bindu beat him by 5,949 votes. Unniyadan was then with Kerala Congress (Mani). The UDF continues to struggle to reclaim the seat, once held for it by the Kerala Congress (M), which is now aligned with the LDF. 

The NDA, with around 22 per cent vote share, has fielded Santhosh Cherakulam (61).

Nattika

In Nattika, the CPI has brought back former MLA Geetha Gopi (52), setting up a high-stakes return battle. Geetha Gopi, who was the MLA from 2011 to 2021, faces her erstwhile party colleague and sitting MLA C C Mukundan (67), who has switched to the BJP now, and Congress’s Adv Sunil Laloor (45), who finished second in 2021 with around 29 per cent vote share.

Mukundan has accused the party of “selling” the seat. Left sources say she would have likely moved to the BJP had she not been fielded. With the LDF’s organisational strength in play and a past winning margin crossing 26,000 votes, the CPI may sail past the post.