Coimbatore will probably be one of the most keenly watched constituencies when Tamil Nadu votes for the Lok Sabha elections on Friday.
Here, Tamil Nadu BJP president K. Annamalai is up against the DMK’s Ganapathi P. Rajkumar and the AIADMK’s Singai G. Ramachandran.
PM Modi has led a roadshow and a campaign rally in the constituency, while Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and Tamil Nadu CM M.K. Stalin have carried out a massive show of strength for the I.N.D.I.A bloc.
The seat is currently held by CPI(M) leader P.R. Natarajan, who contested the 2019 election as part of an alliance with the DMK and the Congress.
Coimbatore Lok Sabha Constituency
The Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency comprises six assembly seats: Palladam, Sulur, Kavundampalayam, Coimbatore North, Coimbatore South, and Singanallur.
Five of the seats are held by the AIADMK. The lone exception was Coimbatore South, which elected the BJP’s Vanathi Srinivasan in the 2021 assembly elections. Her closest rival was superstar Kamal Haasan (Makkal Needhi Maiam), who lost by a margin of 1,700 votes.
The constituency is considered a stronghold of the Left parties, and has been won by the CPI and the CPI(M) seven times since 1957 – 1967, 1971, 1974, 1977, 2004, 2009, and 2019. The Congress has triumphed six times, with the DMK and the BJP notching two wins each.
The BJP’s wins in the seat came in the backdrop of serial blasts that rocked the city in February 1998 and killed nearly 60 people. The blasts were blamed on a banned radical Muslim group based in Tamil Nadu, Al Ummah.
The BJP was in alliance with the AIADMK in 1998, and with the DMK in 1999.
Coimbatore Lok Sabha Election Rewind
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the CPI(M)’s P.R. Natarajan won the seat by defeating BJP leader C.P. Radhakrishnan by a margin of 1,79,143 votes. In 2019, the BJP was in alliance with the AIADMK.
In 2014, the AIADMK’s P. Nagarajan defeated Radhakrishnan by a margin of 42,015 votes. P.R. Natarajan was also the winner in 2009, defeating the Congress’s R.Prabhu by 38,964 votes.
The Contest
For the DMK, the upcoming battle holds great significance as they aim to undo the gains made by the BJP during the 2021 assembly elections. Additionally, they seek to challenge the AIADMK in the ‘Kongu Belt’, where the party has traditionally been dominant in the assembly segments.
In its bid to contest from Coimbatore, the DMK has allocated the Dindigul constituency to the CPI(M).
Its candidate Ganapathi Rajkumar quit the AIADMK and joined the DMK in 2020. He served as Coimbatore mayor from 2014 to 2016.
AIADMK candidate Singai G. Ramachandran is an IIM alumnus and has earlier served as MLA from Singanallur. The son of a former MLA, he heads the AIADMK’s information technology wing.
Meanwhile, the election is a crucial litmus test for Annamalai, who conducted a padayatra – ‘En Mann, En Makkal (My Land, My People)’ – in the run-up to the polls with an aim to foster trust and connection with people across the state. The TN BJP chief was known as ‘Singham anna’ during his IPS stint for his policing style. He is also an IIM alum.