Coimbatore, Chennai South, Nilgiris: 12 seats where BJP and its allies came second in Tamil Nadu

Lok Sabha Elections 2024: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under its firebrand state chief K Annamalai may have failed to win any seat in Tamil Nadu, but it has become the third largest party in terms of vote share, falling behind DMK and AIADMK - two regional forces that have dominated the southern state. The Congress, which bagged 9 seats in this election in alliance with DMK, secured 10.67% of votes against BJP's 11.24%. The saffron party and its allies came second on 12 seats, such as Coimbatore, Chennai South, and Theni. 

Former IPS-turned-politician Annamalai, credited by cadres for the tangible work to shore up the party's fortunes in Tamil Nadu, ended up runner-up in the western city. He lost the election to DMK's Ganapathy Rajkumar by 1.18 lakh votes, but his vote share jumped to nearly 33%. The BJP also secured over 30% of votes in Chennai South, Tirunelveli, and Kanniyakumari. 

Coimbatore

Annamalai put up an impressive fight in Coimbatore, an industrial hub, as he garnered 4,50,132 votes (highest for BJP so far for the seat) against DMK's Ganapathi Raj Kumar. The saffron party also got 3.92 lakh votes in 2019, but that happened when the AIADMK was part of the NDA. In 2014, the BJP had got nearly 3.9 lakh votes, when current Jharkhand Governor CP Radhakrishnan was its candidate. Till now, Radhakrishnan's 4,49,269 was the highest number for the BJP - in alliance with the AIADMK. 

Chennai South 

DMK's Thamizhachi Thangapandian retained Chennai South by securing 5,16,628 votes, while BJP's Tamilisai Soundararajan got 2,90,683. AIDMK's J Jayavardhan came in at the third position with 1,72,491 votes. Jayavardhan had won this seat in 2014 for AIADMK. 

Chennai Central

Here, BJP's Vinoj came second with 1.69 lakh votes. He, however, lost the elections to DMK's Dayanidhi Maran, who emerged victorious by securing 4.13 lakh votes. 

Kanniyakumari 

Congress' Vijay Vasanth retained the Kanniyakumari seat by securing 5.46 lakh votes against BJP's Pon Radhakrishnan. Here, even though Radhakrishnan came in second, his votes declined from the 2021 by-election. This time, the BJP leader got 3,66,341 votes, down from 438,087 in 2021. Radhakrishnan had bagged the Kanniyakumari seat in 2014. 

Madurai 

Madurai is another seat where the saffron party came second with 2.2 lakh votes against CPI-M's S. Venkatesan, who secured 4.3 votes. AIADMK's P. Saravanan also put up a strong fight and garnered 2.04 lakh votes. If the BJP and AIADMK had partnered, they might have wrested the seat from the Left.   

Nilgiris

The BJP also put up a good show in Nilgiris, where L Murugan was up against former telecom minister A Raja. Murugan secured 2.32 votes against Raja's 4.73 lakh. AIADMK's D Lokesh Thamizh Selvan was not very far behind and got 2.2 lakh votes. Here again, the AIADMK-BJP alliance would have made a difference for the NDA. 

Tiruvallur

Tiruvallur is another seat where the BJP has come second, but the loss margin is huge. Congress' Sasikanth Senthil got 7.96 lakh votes against BJP candidate Pon V Balaganapathy's 2.24 lakh. Two other candidates made a massive difference in the seat, as they cumulatively secured 3.5 lakh votes. 

Tirunelveli

In Tirunelveli, BJP's Nainar Nagendran pulled 3.36 lakh votes against Congress candidate Robert Bruce's over 5 lakh votes. AIADMK's Jansi Rani got nearly 90,000 votes - far behind the BJP's number. In 2019, AIADMK's Manoj Pandian secured 3.37 lakh votes (32%).  

Vellore

In Vellore, the BJP's AC Shanmugam also came second by securing 3.52 lakh votes against 5.68 lakh of DMK's DM Kathir Anand. AIADMK's S Pasupathy came third with just 1.17 lakh votes. In 2019, Shanmugam, then an AIADMK candidate, lost the seat by less than 10,000 votes.    

Besides these, BJP's allies came second in Theni (TTV Dhinakaran), Dharmapuri (Sowmiya Anbumani), and Ramanathpuram (former CM O Panneerselvam contested as Independent).