In Kovai, it's a nail-biting 3-cornered battle between Dravidian majors & BJP

DMK, AIADMK and BJP candidates of Coimbatore plan campaigns focusing on development of infrastructure, textile, and MSMEs

- S MANNAR MANNAN

WHEN it comes to Lok Sabha elections, Coimbatore, the second largest city of Tamil Nadu, has a history of giving an upper hand to the candidates of national parties. In the past 17 parliamentary elections, victory has always taken the side of the Congress, BJP, CPI or CPI(M) in the constituency.

This time, the game is more exciting as the constituency is witnessing a three-cornered contest with Dravidian majors AIADMK and DMK locking horns with BJP, the ruling party at the centre. While the AIADMK wants to ensure that the Kongu region, particularly Coimbatore, continues to be its bastion, the DMK wants to breach the fort and come out of its 2014 poll nightmare when the party was pushed to the third place.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigned twice in the constituency a public meeting in Palladam and a road show in RS Puram. This indicates the BJP, which is targeting more than 400 seats in 2024 LS elections, fancies its chances here. Though party state president K Annamalai (39) was not keen on contesting but in touring across TN, he ended up nodding to the high command's decision. The notion that Annamalai might get a ministerial birth, given he and the NDA alliance turn victorious, could work in his favour.

Glancing back to the previous polls, BJP won twice in 1998 and 1999 - in the aftermath of the bomb blast. Also, they managed to get around four lakh votes in 2014 in alliance with DMDK, PMK, MDMK and in 2019 in an alliance with AIADMK. This time, the BJP has entered into an alliance with PMK and AMMK and is banking on the campaigning of Annamalai and PM Modi, who is likely to visit the district one more time.