Coimbatore Exit Poll Results 2024: Prestige battle for BJP's firebrand Annamalai; It's a tight fight, predicts Axis My India

Coimbatore Exit Poll 2024: Coimbatore, the second-largest city in Tamil Nadu, witnessed a clash of titans as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) went all out to pull off a surprise in the southern citadel. Here, the BJP fielded its firebrand leader and state chief K Annamalai against former Coimbatore Mayor and DMK leader P Ganapaty Rajkumar, and Singai G Ramachandran of the AIADMK. 

India Today-Axis My India has predicted a tight contest in Coimbatore. Axis My India MD Pradeep Gupta said Annamalai is trailing in Coimbatore. The two seats where the BJP-led NDA may win Theni and 
Tirunelveli.
  

In the 2019 elections, DMK ally CPI(M) bagged the seat with 45.85 per cent of votes, while BJP's CP Radhakrishnan was the nearest contender with 31.47 per cent of votes.  
 
Coimbatore is one of the few seats in Tamil Nadu where the saffron party is hoping to win. The BJP had won this seat in 1998 and 1999 in alliance with the AIADMK. In the last four elections, the Left has won Coimbatore three times - 2004, 2009, and 2019. The AIADMK held this seat from 2014 to 2019. 

AIADMK's Singai Ramachandran (36) is the youngest among candidates in Coimbatore. He and Annamalai are both IIM graduates and DMK's Rajkumar (58) holds a doctorate in journalism.

In the run-up to the elections, AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami asserted the fight was only between his party and the DMK. However, the BJP, riding on Annamalai's popularity, worked hard to give the well-entrenched Dravidian parties a run for their money.

Annamalai has made 100 promises to be fulfilled in 500 days and assurances include cleaning up rivers, an international airport, and food vans named after former Chief Minister K Kamaraj. The BJP nominee has also promised to set up a unit of the National Investigation Agency in Coimbatore, where a car blast happened in 2022. Coimbatore is also a communally-sensitive district as a serial bomb blast in 1998 rocked the city, killing 58. 

The BJP has several pockets of influence in Coimbatore and a committed voter base. This is also a region where the Hindu outfits have a comparatively good presence.