Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai trails from Coimbatore seat

Tamil Nadu BJP President, K Annamalai is currently trailing on the Coimbatore Lok Sabha seat against INDIA bloc and AIADMK candidates, as per early trends.

Annamali is facing the INDIA bloc and the AIADMK alliance in the Coimbatore Lok Sabha seat.

Annamalai is taking on Ganapathi P Rajkumar of the DMK and Singai G Ramachandran of the AIADMK in a three-cornered contest.

The young IPS-officer-turned politician has created an image of a crusader against corruption.

He has taken on the DMK by bringing out in public domain several alleged corruption charges against the ruling party in Tamil Nadu under the name, ‘DMK files’.

His six-month-long padyatra, ‘My land, my people’ has created a major impact among the people in Tamil Nadu.

Annamalai has showcased the central government’s schemes, including welfare programmes and attacked the DMK for its ‘poor’ governance and lashed out against the BJP’s then-ally AIADMK and forced it to snap ties with the party.

Coimbatore seat dynamics

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, CPI(M) leader, PR Natarajan won the seat as part of the DMK alliance, defeating BJP leader CP Radhakrishnan by a margin of 1,79,143 votes.

It may be recalled that the BJP was in an alliance with the AIADMK in the 2019 general elections and the 2021 Assembly polls.

For the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, the DMK has taken over the Coimbatore seat from the CPI(M) and allocated it the Dindigul constituency.

This, according to political observers was for putting up a strong fight against the BJP in the constituency.

Political analyst K Senthilnathan told agencies, “The Coimbatore seat has turned into a matter of prestige for the DMK and the party wanted to ensure that it was putting up a fight to retain the seat. This is the reason it swapped Dindigul with Coimbatore with the CPI(M).”

The BJP, it may be recalled, has won twice from Coimbatore. Party leader CP Radhakrishnan won the seat in 1998 and 1999 but in alliance with the AIADMK and DMK respectively.

(With inputs from syndicated feed)