Lok Sabha Elections 2024: As part of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) attempts to make inroads to the South for the Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a roadshow in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore on Monday (March 18) evening in the city's Mettupalayam Road and is likely to end it at RS Puram. This is his first political engagement in the state after the announcement of the seven-phased Lok Sabha election schedule. Both NDA and I.N.D.I.A bloc are yet to declare their candidates on the seat. The BJP had contested the general elections in the state in alliance with All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and had drawn blank in 2019. In September 2023, the two parted ways, leaving the BJP to contest with smaller parties such as Thiruthurapoondi Thiruvenkatam Vivekananda Dhinakaran-led Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam and GK Vasan-led Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC).
However, the BJP, with a newfound vigour under its aggressive state unit president K Annamalai, is making all efforts to make significant inroads into Tamil Nadu, the Dravidian heartland that has always favoured the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the AIADMK, or alliances led by them in the hustings.
According to the experts, the chance that the BJP has taken of going alone with smaller parties in Tamil Nadu may help it to win nearly five seats, in a triangular contest against the DMK-led I.N.D.I.A bloc in the state, and Opposition AIADMK.
Why is Coimbatore significant for the BJP?
The BJP had got nearly one-third of the votes in Coimbatore in previous two Lok Sabha elections but came relatively close to AIADMK only in 2014 when there was a triangular contest.
Coimbatore had seen widespread violence in 2016 after stone pelting incidents were reported in several mosques and churches following the killing of a Hindu Munnani spokesperson C Sasikumar. The NIA had named the members of the now-banned extremist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) as accused in its chargesheet.
In 1998, during the visit of BJP leader LK Advani to Coimbatore, multiple bomb blast had claimed over 55 lives. After this, local BJP leader CP Radhakrishnan was voted to Lok Sabha twice in 1998 and 1999. However, he failed to retain his seat since 2004. He was defeated by CPIM’s PR Natarajan in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
In the 2021 Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, BJP candidate and Mahila Morcha president Vanathi Srinivasan had defeated actor and leader of Makkal Needhi Maiam Kamal Haasan in a nail-biting contest in the Coimbatore South constituency.
The nail-biting battle was between Haasan, Srinivasan and Mayura Jayakumar of the Congress.
With the I.N.D.I.A bloc expected to put up a single candidate from the seat to not let the votes split, the BJP is putting in full efforts to clinch this seat once again.
The Coimbatore district has also elected one BJP MLA in the 2021 Assembly polls, out of the total four that the party has in the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly.
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