ALAPPUZHA: LDF and UDF won eight times each in Lok Sabha election from Alappuzha since 1957. Basically a communist forte, Alappuzha has shown this ever-changing results when it comes to Lok Sabha election.

K.C. Venugopal of UDF has held his seat at Alappuzha for ten years now. However, Venugopal candidacy is not entirely sure this time as he has been appointed as the AICC general secretary. If he is going to contest elections, it would be definitely from Alappuzha.

On the other hand, LDF has only fielded strong candidates at Alappuzha. P.T. Punnoose, P.K. Vasudevan Nair, Suseela Gopalan, and K. Balakrishnan are some of the names in that long list. In 1980, Suseela Gopalan contested to beat the then sitting MP, V.M. Sudheeran. In the next election, UDF reclaimed the seat with Vakkom Purushothaman. The mind of the voters swayed in subsequent elections.

CPM is now trying to field M.A. Baby at Alappuzha. In the district, majority voters are from Ezhava community. Latin Catholics and Muslim community are also strong in numbers. CPM calculates that Baby can get coastal and community votes.

BJP has never been a strong presence in Alappuzha. However, in the light of Sabarimala issue, the party believes that there is a visible change. BJP is in search of a candidate as BDJS, their allied party is not interested in Alappuzha seat.