BJP’s Coimbatore Counter: Betting Big on Annamalai to Make it Triangular Fight, Kick Off TN’s Acche Din

It is time of brisk business for 42-year-old Abdul. Truth be told, it’s a usual phenomenon during election time outside the V.O.C park in South Coimbatore, where candidates of every affiliation and symbol try to woo the public. Abdul, over the years, has heard political articulation of every kind, from the Dravidian parties of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), national players, fringe candidates to independent candidates in the fray. This time, Coimbatore may have finally got its chance to host a multi-cornered contest, he says.

“We can’t say who will win. All three parties are contesting this time. The AIADMK, DMK and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are trying to woo the voters here,” Abdul said.

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K Annamalai, the face of Tamil Nadu’s BJP and arguably one of the most spirited leaders in Tamil Nadu, is contesting from Coimbatore. The DMK has chosen to field its own rather than handing it to an alliance partner like in 2019 to show how committed it is to retain the seat. Ganapathy P Rajkumar from the DMK is locking horns with Singai Ramachandran, an IIMA graduate who was spotted by J Jayalalithaa and made the IT wing chief through the 2016 and 2019 elections.

A TRIANGULAR CONTEST?

Coimbatore is a complex patchwork of votebanks. The pitch is even more fragmented now, with the growing clout of the BJP. A traditional business hub helmed by affluent entrepreneurs into textile, machine tools and other export-oriented units, Coimbatore has a powerful working class segment too, with the Communist parties having a stronghold and boasting of previous wins.

All said, while the contest still threatens to get purely binary – between the AIADMK and the DMK – the only surprise this time could be how the BJP performs. The party has a history with this constituency. Current Jharkhand governor and former TN state president CP Radhakrishnan had won successively in 1998 and 1999 from this constituency, riding on the back of the 1998 bombings allegedly to target BJP leader LK Advani.

The BJP may have lost ground since Radhakrishnan’s days in Coimbatore. But consistent efforts have been made across the rank and file. It’s for this reason that the electorate, too, believes it will not be a purely Dravidian battle.

“It is an easy win for the ruling party,” said an auto driver from Coimbatore. First-time voter Rajesh said he would give Annamalai a chance.

On the other hand is the strength of the AIADMK. Five of the six Assembly constituencies that make up Coimbatore are with the party, while the other – Coimbatore South – had chosen BJP’s Vanathi Srinivasan. This gives significant leverage for the AIADMK to activate the local machinery, rivalling what the DMK can execute as the party in power in Tamil Nadu.

“Coimbatore is always a stronghold of the AIADMK. And the battle here is always between the AIADMK and the DMK,” Rajeshwari, 36, said.

LOCAL ISSUES

Residents want the candidate representing their constituency to bring a Metro rail network to the city. “We need a Metro line. We need better infrastructure. We want a candidate who has a vision for Coimbatore. Parties just visit us before the elections and don’t come back to fulfil the poll promises,” said Narasimhan, a long-time resident whose scepticism about the intent of politicians has only grown over the years.

Coimbatore’s business class is, again, legendary. The textile entrepreneurs built their units with great vivacity, despite inherent challenges such as lack of water and other infrastructural challenges. In recent times, several issues have taken root — Goods and Services Tax (GST) woes and difficulty to obtain Mudra loans, among others. They want their Parliamentary representative to take up these issues in Delhi.

“We have put forth our requests to the central government. We want GST on jowar to be reduced from 12% to 5%. We need uniform raw material price. The process of getting mudra loans should be simplified. We want the system to be easy for us. We have met central government ministers and put forth our requests. We hope the new government helps revive our sector,” said Puviarasu, an entrepreneur from the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector.

Will Coimbatore be the place where the tide turns for the BJP, with K Annamalai rowing the boat, or will it be a case of ‘the more things appear to change, the more they remain the same’?

We will know on June 4.