The Congress enjoyed a near-absolute political dominance for several decades in India but it still could not win this seat with popular vote even once. Above: Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. (Photo: Getty Images)

It may come as a surprise, and for some even hard to believe, but it is true. Of the 543 Lok Sabha seats for which elections are being held, there is one seat where Congress, the grand old party of India, has never won the popular vote. Never since 1951 when the first Lok Sabha elections were held in India.

For much of these 68 years, the Congress remained in power at the national level and ruled most states in India. Such was its monopoly over government formation that the first non-Congress government in India was formed in 1977, 26 years after the first Lok Sabha elections in 1951. It (the Janata Party government) lasted only three years, following which the Congress returned to power for 10 years.

Another example of Congress's overarching influence on Indian voters is that until the early 1990s, most states in India were exclusively ruled by the Congress.

However, despite this towering image of the Congress, there was one tiny part in the country which, elections after elections, decided that it is better off by not voting Congress to power.

We bring you the story of this lone seat and also shed light on a few others which have shown similar character--to not vote for Congress.

Ponnani. A small Lok Sabha seat in Kerala has never voted Congress to power. It is a small coastal city which was once famous for its spice trade. In the middle ages, it developed as a prominent trading centre with the Arab world and later the Portuguese attacked it many times to control its spice trade. Today, Ponnani is famous as a fishing town and the Ponnani Canal that divides the city into two.

WHO WON PONNANI BETWEEN 1951 & 2014?

Since the first general election in 1951, Ponnani has been represented in the Lok Sabha once by the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party (1951), thrice by the Left (Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India (Marxist) --1962, 1967 and 1972) and 11 times by the Indian Union Muslim League (1977-2014).

In 1951, Ponnani was a multi-member constituency and sent two MPs to the Lok Sabha. One was for the General category and the other for the reserved (Scheduled Castes) category.

For the sake of clarity, we differentiate these two representatives from the same constituency and classify them as Lok Sabha members from Ponnani (General) and Ponnani (SC) seats.

Of the two MPs that Ponnani sent to the Lok Sabha in 1951, the General category MP was from the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party, which won popular vote in the election. The MP for the reserved (SC) seat was from the Congress.

In 1951, the Congress fielded two candidates from Ponnani - Karunakara Menon and Eacheran Iyyani. Menon was for the General seat while Iyyani was for the reserved (SC) seat.

When the results were announced, Kelappan Koyhapali of the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party polled maximum 1,46,366 votes, followed by Menon (1,36,603 votes) and Iyyani (1,20,214 votes).

Kelappan Koyhapali of the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party thus won the popular open election and became the General category MP from Ponnani.

From the reserved seat, Congress's Eacheran Iyyani (who stood third in terms of popular votes received) was sent to Parliament.

Thus, the Congress did send an MP from Ponnani but it has never won a popular open election here.

(*Read endnote 1 to know more about multi-member seats and how elections there were different from other seats.)

The 1951 Lok Sabha election was the only time Ponnani sent two MPs to the Lok Sabha.

It appears that election was not held in Ponnani in 1957. The Election Commission's report on the results for the 1957 Lok Sabha election does not feature Ponnani's name in it. Similarly, the website of the Lok Sabha too does not mention Ponnani as a seat during the term of the second Lok Sabha (1957-1962). Election results for Ponnani re-surface from 1962 Lok Sabha election and onwards. (**Read endnote 2 for more details on this.)

CONGRESS AND THE CURIOUS CASE OF PONNANI

In the early decades of Independence, the Congress tried hard to win the Ponnani Lok Sabha seat. The general elections in 1951-52, 1962, 1967 and 1971 saw Congress's vote share fluctuate between a low of 17.64 per cent (in 1951-52) and a high of 45.12 per cent (in 1971).

In all these elections it lost to the Left and the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party.

Having failed to win this seat, the Congress entered into an alliance with the India Union Muslim League (IUML) and stopped fielding candidate from Ponnani. Since 1977, the India Union Muslim League has retained this seat.

Geographically speaking, Ponnani lies on the Malabar Coast hugging the Arabian Sea. It falls in Kerala's Malappuram district. As per Census 2011, the district had a Muslim population of more than 60 per cent.

Ponnani is a beautiful coastal town on the Malabar Coast in Kerala hugging the Arabian Sea. (Photo: Bizillianer)

PONNANI'S CLOSE COUSINS: HOOGHLY & KENDRAPARA

While Ponnani may be the only seat where Congress has never won a popular mandate in a Lok Sabha election, there are at least five other constituencies which have rejected the party election after election.

IndiaToday.in's analysis of Lok Sabha elections results shows that the Hooghly Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal and Kendrapara Lok Sabha seat in Odisha are two seats where the Congress has been able to win just once since 1951.

In Kendrapara, the Congress won in 1951 and since then the grand old party has never been able to regain this seat. People here have reposed their faith in parties other than the Congress - mostly Janata Dal and Biju Janata Dal.

The closest that Congress came to winning this seat again was in 1962 when it had a vote share of 49.98 per cent and lost by just 66 votes. In 2014, the margin of votes between the winning candidate and Congress's candidate was 2.09 lakh.

Meanwhile, Hooghly has been a stronghold of the Left parties ever since the first Lok Sabha election. The Congress was able to win this seat only once.

It was in the 1984 Lok Sabha elections that were held after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Congress had a vote share of 50.49 per cent in this election. By 2014, its vote share had plummeted to 3.13 per cent.

Besides these, the other constituencies that have shown a similar character are Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, and Arambagh and Bolpur in West Bengal.

Arambagh never voted Congress to power since 1967 when the seat was formed. Srinagar and Bolpur voted Congress to power only once since 1967 (the year when these seats were formed). Congress won from Srinagar in 1996 and from Bolpur in 1967.

Map showing Lok Sabha seats that have repeatedly voted against the Congress.

(Click image for a zoomed version.)

WHAT ABOUT 2019 LOK SABHA POLLS?

For the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the Congress has once again refrained from fielding a candidate from Ponnani. The Indian Union Muslim League, which has been winning this seat since 1977, has fielded its sitting MP ET Muhammed Basheer.

In Hooghly, the Congress has fielded Pratul Saha against BJP's Locket Chatterjee and Trinamool Congress's sitting MP Ratna De.

The Congress has also fielded a candidate in Kendrapara (Dharanidhar Nayak). He is contesting against Bharatiya Janata Party's Baijayant Panda (who won this seat on a Biju Janata Dal ticket in 2009 and 2014).

In Srinagar, the Congress has not fielded any candidate because it has formed a pre-poll alliance with the J&K National Conference.

Thus, it is clear that even in 2019, the Congress will not be able to send an MP of its own from Ponnani, the seat it has never won, and Srinagar (which it has won just once).

Come May 23 when results of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections will be declared, we will find if Congress is able to reclaim Hooghly and Kendraparatwo of its graveyard seats.

Endnotes:

* Endnote 1: In the 1951 Lok Sabha election, Ponnani was designated as a multi-member seat. This meant that there would be two MPs from Ponnani in the Lok Sabha. One was for the General category and the other MP would be for a reserved seat for the Scheduled Caste. Besides Ponnani, there were 86 other multi-member seats in the country in 1951.

This system was introduced to ensure that the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) get adequate representation in the Lok Sabha. However, the system was abolished before the third Lok Sabha election (held in 1962) and the multi-member constituencies were divided into two-one for the General category and the other (the one with greater SC/ST population) became the reserved category.

In the 1951 and 1957 Lok Sabha elections, a unique mechanism was devised for elections in the multi-member seats. The SC/ST candidate winning the maximum votes was declared the winner from the reserved seat.

Winner for the General category seat would be decided from the remaining candidates (including the defeated SC/ST candidates). Whoever earned the highest votes would be declared the winner.

Voters in these special constituencies had two votes (one for General and the other for reserved seat) but both the votes could not be cast for the same candidate. (There was a seat in West Bengal-North Bengal-where people had three votes because it sent three MPs to the Lok SabhaGeneral, SC and ST.)

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** Endnote 2: The final order for the delimitation of Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies 1953-1955 (prepared by the Election Commission) mentions Ponnani but says it will no longer be a multi-member seat. In this order the Election Commission had apparently decided that the reserved seat for the Scheduled Castes would be detached from Ponnani.

However, in 1956, the Election Commission came up with another report on delimitation of constituencies and surprisingly Ponnani's name was missing from it altogether. No explanation was provided for this in the report. A year later when Lok Sabha elections were held in 1957, the report on the results too did not have any mention of Ponnani.

Data for Ponnani Lok Sabha seat re-surfaces from the third Lok Sabha elections that were held in 1962.

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The author tweets at @mukeshrawat705 and can also be reached out at Facebook.

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