Punalur Assembly constituency

Punalur
Punalur
Constituency No. 121 for the Kerala Legislative Assembly
	Punalur KSRTC Bus Station
Constituency details
Country	India
Region	South India
State	Kerala
District	Kollam
Established	1957
Total electors	1,46251 (2021)
Reservation	None
Member of Legislative Assembly
	16th Kerala Legislative Assembly
	Incumbent Ajayaprasad C
Party	CPI
Alliance	LDF
Elected year	2026

Punalur is a legislative assembly constituency in Kollam district of Kerala, India. It is one among the 11 assembly constituencies in Kollam district.^[1] The current MLA is Ajayaprasad C of CPI.

Structure

As per the recent changes^[when?] in Assembly constituency delimitations, Punalur Assembly constituency consists of the municipality of Punalur and seven neighbouring panchayaths including Anchal, Ariyankavu, Edamulakkal, Eroor, Karavaloor, Kulathupuzha and Thenmala in Punalur taluk.^[2]^[3]

Punalur Assembly constituency was carved out from Pathanapuram Assembly constituency in 1954.

Year	Winner	Party	Vote Margin	Coalition
1954	P. Gopalan	CPI	3,417	Left^[4]

The following list contains all members of Kerala Legislative Assembly who have represented the constituency:

Election	Niyama Sabha	Member	Party	Tenure
1957	1st	P. Gopalan	CPI	1957–1960
1960	2nd	K. Krishna Pillai		1960–1965
1967	3rd	M. N. Govindan Nair		1967–1970
1970	4th	K. Krishna Pillai		1970–1977
1977	5th	P. K. Sreenivasan		1977–1980
1980	6th	P. K. Sreenivasan		1980–1982
1982	7th	M. Sam Oommen	KC(J)	1982–1984
1984*	7th	V. Surendran Pillai	KC(J)	1984 –1987
1987	8th	J. Chitharanjan	CPI	1987–1991
1991	9th	Punalur Madhu	INC	1991–1996
1996	10th	P. K. Sreenivasan	CPI	1996
1996*	10th	P. S. Supal		1996–2001
2001	11th	P. S. Supal		2001–2006
2006	12th	K. Raju		2006–2011
2011	13th			2011–2016
2016	14th			2016-2021
2021	15th	P. S. Supal		2021–2026
2026	16th	C. Ajayaprasad		Incumbent

*by-election

Percentage change (±%) denotes the change in the number of votes from the immediate previous election.

2026 Kerala Legislative Assembly election: Punalur
Party		Candidate	Votes
	CPI	C. Ajayaprasad
	IUML	Noushad Yonus
	TTP	Adv. Reghunadh Kamukumchery
	BSP	Jose Saranath
	Equality Party of India	Nedumoncavu Gopalakrishnan
	SUCI(C)	K Mahesh
	NOTA	None of the above
Margin of victory
Turnout
	CPI hold		Swing

There were 2,05,830 registered voters in the constituency for the 2021 Kerala Assembly election.^[5]

2021 Kerala Legislative Assembly election: Punalur
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	CPI	P. S. Supal	80,428	54.99	1.86
	IUML	Abdurahiman Randathani	43,371	29.66	3.95
	BJP	Ayoor Murali	20,069	13.72
	NOTA	None of the above	688	0.47
	Independent	Shibu M. Scaria	617	0.42	−
	SUCI(C)	K. Mahesh	407	0.28	0.49
	Independent	Thenmala Nagarajan	264	0.18
Margin of victory			37,057	25.33	2.09
Turnout			1,46,251	71.05	0.45
	CPI hold		Swing	1.86

There were 2,04,628 registered voters in the constituency for the 2016 Kerala Assembly election.^[6]

2016 Kerala Legislative Assembly election: Punalur
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	CPI	K. Raju	82,136	56.85	2.33
	IUML	A. Younus Kunju	48,554	33.61
	KEC	Sisil Fernandes	10,558	7.31
	SUCI(C)	K. Sasankan	1,117	0.77	0.40
	NOTA	None of the above	888	0.61
	Independent	Nettayam Suji	639	0.44	−
	SS	Satheeshkumar B.	415	0.29
	Independent	Navas M.	164	0.11
Margin of victory			33,582	23.24	9.73
Turnout			1,44,471	70.60	0.47
	CPI hold		Swing	2.33

There were 1,89,994 registered voters in the constituency for the 2011 election.^[7]

2011 Kerala Legislative Assembly election: Punalur
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	CPI	K. Raju	72,648	54.52
	INC	Johnson Abraham	54,643	41.01
	BJP	B. Radhamani	4,155	3.12
	Independent	S. Jayakumar	699	0.52
	BSP	Kuzhichayil Sunil	606	0.45
	SUCI(C)	S. Shailaja	494	0.37	−
Margin of victory			18,005	13.51
Turnout			1,33,245	70.13
	CPI hold		Swing

2006 Kerala Legislative Assembly election: Punalur
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	CPI	K. Raju	58,895	51.91
	CMP	M. V. Raghavan	50,970	44.93
Margin of victory			7,925	6.98
Turnout			1,13,433
	CPI hold		Swing

There were 1,72,072 registered voters in the constituency for the 2001 election.

2001 Kerala Legislative Assembly election: Punalur
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	CPI	P. S. Supal	57,065	48.15
	INC	A. Hidur Muhammod	55,522	46.85
	BJP	B. Radhamani	4,660	3.93
Margin of victory			1,543	1.30
Turnout			1,18,514	68.92
	CPI hold		Swing

1996 by-election: Punalur
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	CPI	P. S. Supal	65,401	57.62
	INC	Bharathipuram Sasi	44,068	38.82
Margin of victory			21,333	18.80
Turnout			1,13,513
	CPI hold		Swing

There were 1,59,320 registered voters in the constituency for the 1996 election.

1996 Kerala Legislative Assembly election: Punalur
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	CPI	P. K. Sreenivasan	55,382	50.88
	INC	Punalur Madhu	48,684	44.73
Margin of victory			6,698	6.15
Turnout			1,08,845	69.44
	CPI gain from INC		Swing

There were 1,53,639 registered voters in the constituency for the 1991 election.

1991 Kerala Legislative Assembly election: Punalur
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	INC	Punalur Madhu	53,050	49.20
	CPI	Mullakkara Ratnakaran	51,738	47.98
	BJP	S. Vijayan	2,700	2.50
Margin of victory			1,312	1.22
Turnout			1,07,836	70.97
	INC gain from CPI		Swing