Coimbatore: When veteran Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam minister in Tamil Nadu, Palanivel Thiyaga Rajan, was removed from the Finance Ministry and sent to the Information Technology Ministry in May 2023, it was believed that it was the result of the audio clip made public by BJP state president K. Annamalai. Annamalai took full advantage of this and even today he is leaving no stone unturned to corner the ruling DMK and the opposition AIADMK. BJP candidate from Coimbatore, Annamalai is continuously challenging DMK and AIADMK and after the Katchatheevu island dispute, Congress party has also come under his target.
Annamalai became the center of discussion
AIADMK leaders have accused Annamalai of saying bad things about Dravidian icon CN Annadurai and late party supremo J Jayalalitha, which is why the party broke ties with the BJP last year. In Tamil Nadu politics, whether it was the audio clip episode or AIADMK breaking ties with BJP, Annamalai remained the center of discussion in some way or the other. All eyes are on the election of Coimbatore seat of Tamil Nadu. Thiagarajan had rejected BJP’s allegation that his voice was in the audio clip. Almost a year after Rajan was transferred to another ministry, Chief Minister MK Stalin said in this regard that the move was not on BJP’s allegations but to improve the information technology department.
To prove its dominance in Tamil Nadu politics, the ruling DMK did not give the Coimbatore seat to its allies but instead made its party’s former mayor P Ganapathy Rajkumar its candidate. In the last Lok Sabha elections, this seat was won by the candidate of DMK’s ally Marxist Communist Party (CPI-M). The DMK has staked this election on several of its welfare schemes including free travel for women in buses.
AIADMK made Singaiji Ramachandran its candidate.
AIADMK has fielded its youngest candidate, Singai G Ramachandran (36), from the Coimbatore seat. He and Annamalai graduated from IIM. DMK’s 58-year-old candidate Rajkumar has done PhD in Journalism. Ahead of the elections, AIADMK chief and opposition leader Edappadi K Palaniswami has said that the fight is only between his party and the DMK. But BJP is working hard and enthusiastically to take on the well-entrenched Dravidian parties.
Assurance to fulfill 100 promises in 500 days
BJP workers are banking on Annamalai’s popularity to emerge victorious. He has assured the people of Tamil Nadu to fulfill 100 promises in 500 days, including cleaning rivers, an international airport and providing food vans named after former Chief Minister K Kamaraj. Coimbatore has traditionally been an AIADMK stronghold but leftist organizations and their affiliated trade unions have a strong influence on a section of the workers here. BJP also has influence in many areas. Hindu organizations have a comparatively good presence here. Voting for 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu will be held on April 19. (Language)
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