The Manjeshwar Assembly Election 2026 is shaping up to be a keenly watched contest, with the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) aiming for a third consecutive victory, while K Surendran of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is hoping to finally secure a breakthrough after a close defeat in the last election. Adding to the triangular contest, KR Jayanandan of the CPI(M) is also in the fray, making the battle in Manjeshwar a closely contested one.
The constituency, located in Kerala's Kasaragod district, has traditionally been influenced by the state's bipolar political landscape dominated by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Indian National Congress.
Key candidates
Manjeshwar Assembly Constituency has witnessed keen political contests over the years, with the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Congress, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) being the major contenders. The key candidates for the Manjeshwar seat are CPM candidate KR Jayanandan, IUML leader AKM Ashraf, and BJP K Surendran, among others.
Manjeshwar Assembly constituency
The Manjeshwar Assembly constituency is one of the 140 constituencies in the Kerala Legislative Assembly. It is constituency number 1 of the Kerala Legislative Assembly. The constituency is a general seat not reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). Manjeshwar is a key legislative assembly constituency in Kerala that comes under the Kasaragod district.
Manjeshwar Assembly constituency is part of the Kasaragod Lok Sabha constituency. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Congress candidate Rajmohan Unnithan won the Kasaragod parliamentary seat by defeating Mv Balakrishnan of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) with a margin of 100649 votes.
Manjeshwar Constituency Demographic Profile
As per data from the Election Commission, there were 2,21,038 voters in the Manjeshwar constituency during the 2021 Assembly Elections. Out of this, 1,10,378 were male voters in Manjeshwar, and 1,10,660 were female voters. There were no voters who belonged to the third gender. 2,473 postal votes were cast in this constituency. The number of service voters in Manjeshwar in 2021 was 29 (27 men and 2 women).
In 2016, the total number of voters in the Manjeshwar constituency was 2,08,084. Out of this, 1,03,346 were male, and 1,04,738 were female voters. There were no voters who belonged to the third gender. 303 postal votes were cast in the constituency. The number of service voters in Manjeshwar in 2016 was 20 (13 men and 7 women).
What happened in the 2021 and 2016 Assembly Elections?
In the 2021 Kerala Assembly Elections, IUML candidate AKM Ashraf won the Manjeshwar seat with a margin of 745 votes (0.43%). He received 65,758 votes with a vote share of 38.14%. He defeated BJP candidate K Surendran, who got 65,013 votes with a vote share of 37.7%. CPI-M candidate V V Rameshan stood third with 40,639 votes (23.57%)
In the 2016 Kerala Assembly Elections, IUML candidate PB ABDUL RAZAK won the Manjeshwar seat with a margin of 89 votes (0.06%). He polled 56870 votes with a vote share of 35.79%. BJP candidate K SURENDRAN got 56781 votes (35.74%) and was the runner-up. CPM candidate CH KUNHAMBU stood third with 42565 votes (26.79%).
