Malappuram: Just 1,006 out of a population of more than four million, but the registered non-resident Keralite voters of the district have an influence that stretches far beyond their numbers in any elections.
The upcoming Lok Sabha by-poll, too, is not different. The district has the highest number of expatriates according to a 2013 study by the Non Resident Keralite Affairs department (Norka) of the state government.
As per the 2011 census, the population of Malappuram is 41.12 lakh out of which 2.92 lakh are expats.
The male-female ratio is skewed overwhelmingly in favor of men with just 1,751 women expats. The number of houses with expats as per figures are 2.28 lakh.
The number of those who have jobs abroad stood at 2.78 lakh and the rest, 14,357 are dependents.
Muniyoor panchayat in Tirurangadi block of the district has the most number of families with expats.
Poll fever
Like the love of football, polls are too dear to the expat community. Mostly, linked to nostalgia more than political affiliations, the expat community seeks its share of limelight in polls one way or the other.
In the previous years, expat collectives backing political parties even chartered flights to bring their dedicated voters to polling booths back home. This time, however, due to the exam season not many are able to make it. Many expats with diehard political affiliations have arrived.
For those who are not able to make it, social media is a great tool to hog the limelight, dictate the discourse and even indulge in some banter.
The Saudi unit of the Kerala Muslim Cultural Center (KMCC), a collective that backs the Indian Union Muslim League, has come out with a video for the by-polls.
The video would be shown in campaign vehicles and is being posted on social media as well.
The family get-together of KMCC was inaugurated earlier this week by Panakkad Hyderali Shihab Thangal.
The Kerala Pravasi Sangham, a pro-CPM outfit, is also active in campaigning at home as well as through social media and in labor camps abroad.
Malappuram received the largest chunk of foreign remittances – Rs 10,245 crore or Rs 1,21,000 per households out of the total remittances of Rs 71,142 crore the state received, as per a 2014 study on Dynamics of Emigration and Remittances in Kerala by K.C. Zacharia and S. Irudaya Rajan.