For the BJP, Tamil Nadu is a key to achieving the party’s goal of “400 paar”. With K Annamalai leading the party's charge in the state, the BJP believes the formidable wall of Dravidian politics will be breached this year.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) led the UPA coalition to a landslide victory, getting 38 of the 39 seats in the state.
The choice of K Annamalai from Coimbatore, attributed to the significance of the seat for the BJP, would be the hottest seat to watch. The former IPS officer will be up against the DMK, the AIADMK and the Tamil nationalist, Naam Tamilar Katchi, in a four-cornered contest.
Prestige battle for AIADMK The AIADMK had an acrimonious exit from the BJP-led NDA earlier this year and one of the reasons was Annamalai’s criticism of the Dravidian icons and comments about the party’s late leader Jayalalithaa.
Annamalai will be facing AIADMK's 36-year-old “Singai” G Ramachandran. An IIM Ahmedabad graduate, Ramachandran says Delhi is disconnected from Tamil Nadu politics and that Annamalai will lose because of his 'arrogance'. “His (Annamalai's) IPS or my IIM Ahmedabad, such tags are insignificant. What matters is what you do in your life and how you touch people’s lives. His unnecessary aggression shows that he is scared…,” he said during a poll campaign.
DMK's local edge
DMK’s “Ganapathi” P Rajkumar has been with the AIADMK and served as Coimbatore mayor from 2014 to 2016. In 2020, Rajkumar moved to the DMK. Among his strengths, is his familiarity with Coimbatore.
Rajkumar says the real contest in Coimbatore is between him and Ramachandran. What works in it favour are allies such as the CPM, Dalit party VCK, and support from the city’s Muslim population, which lives in Ukkadam within the city limits, and Christians.
So what is Annamalai banking on then?
Annamalai says he is focussing on the communities the Dravidian parties “have overlooked”, especially the “neo-middle class” in urban areas. The BJP vote share was 55% and 49% in the 1998 and 1999 general elections when the party won the constituency in the aftermath of the Coimbatore bomb blast. Since then, with the possible exception of 2009, the BJP’s average vote share has been around 30% and the party finished runner-up the last two times.