Reji Cheriyan
Member of the Kerala Legislative Assembly representing Kuttanad — the below-sea-level rice bowl of Kerala. Elected May 2026 on a Kerala Congress (Joseph) ticket, part of the United Democratic Front.
Reji Cheriyan
MLA · Kuttanad
Background
A businessman turned public representative
Reji Cheriyan was born in 1968 in Alappuzha district, in the heart of Kerala’s backwater country. Before entering electoral politics, he worked as a businessman in the region he now represents.
In May 2026, he was elected to the Kerala Legislative Assembly from Kuttanad on a Kerala Congress (Joseph) ticket, part of the United Democratic Front. His campaign centered on the two issues that define life in Kuttanad: the welfare of paddy farmers and the water management infrastructure that keeps a region below sea level cultivable.
Timeline
Milestones
Born in Alappuzha District
1968
Born in the Alappuzha district of Kerala, in the backwater country he would later represent.
Elected MLA for Kuttanad
2026
Won the Kuttanad seat with 62,415 votes (46.12%), defeating Thomas K. Thomas of the NCP-SP by a margin of 8,422 votes.
Sworn in to the Assembly
May 2026
Took office as Member of the Legislative Assembly representing Kuttanad constituency.
Priorities
Shaped by Kuttanad’s geography and economy
These priorities follow directly from the region his campaign was built around — a constituency defined by rice, water, and the backwaters.
Paddy Farmer Welfare
Support for Kuttanad's rice farmers through fair procurement pricing and crop protection during the seasonal saltwater intrusion that limits cultivation to two crops a year.
Two harvests a year
Water & Flood Infrastructure
Upkeep of the Thottappally Spillway and Thanneermukkam bund — the systems that make farming possible 1.2 to 3.0 metres below sea level.
Thottappally · Thanneermukkam
Protecting a Global Agricultural Heritage
Safeguarding the Kuttanad Farming System, recognised by the UN FAO as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System in 2013.
FAO GIAHS · 2013
Backwater Livelihoods & Tourism
Sustaining the boat-building, tourism, and fishing economy that has grown up around Kuttanad's rivers and the Vembanad backwaters.
Vembanad backwaters
Constituency
Representing Kuttanad
Kuttanad is unlike any other constituency in Kerala — a delta where paddy is grown 1.2 to 3 metres below sea level, kept farmable by the Thottappally spillway and the Thanneermukkam bund. It’s this land, and the farmers who work it, that Reji Cheriyan was elected to represent in May 2026.
Party
Elected on a Kerala Congress (Joseph) Ticket
Reji Cheriyan represents Kuttanad as a member of Kerala Congress (Joseph), a constituent of the United Democratic Front. It was on this party’s ticket that he stood for, and won, the Kuttanad seat in May 2026.
Founded in 1979 by P. J. Joseph, the party has long held a centrist, regionalist position within the UDF — the same coalition Reji Cheriyan now sits in as a Kuttanad MLA.
Party Record
- Founded
- 1979
- Founder
- P. J. Joseph
- Alliance
- UDF
- Symbol
- Auto Rickshaw