BJP Tamil Nadu chief Annamalai pushes past AIADMK candidate to second place

Chennai, Jun 4 (PTI) Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai, who described himself as "Ungal Veetu Pillai" and "Ungal Thambi" ("your son" and "your younger brother") in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls, put up an excellent fight in Coimbatore constituency, coming in second, as per the leads.

Annamalai pushed main opposition AIADMK's Singal G Ramachandran to the third spot and the margin between them is more than 1.50 lakh votes while DMK nominee Ganapathy P Rajkumar is ahead of the BJP leader by 79,824 votes till 6.55 pm.

Annamalai, credited by cadres for the tangible work to shore up the party's fortunes in the state and expected by them to emerge victorious in Coimbatore, may end up runner-up in the western city if trends continue to be the same till the end of the vote counting process.

On the whole, in Tamil Nadu, the BJP made consistent efforts to make a dent and the entire leadership of saffron party -- from PM Modi, Amit Shah, JP Nadda, Rajnath Singh to Nirmala Sitharaman and Smriti Irani -- campaigned in the state.

The only solace for the BJP is breaching the single digit threshold and scoring 11.01 per cent vote share with support from relatively smaller outfits such as the PMK, whose influence is confined to specific regions of the state like the northern parts of Tamil Nadu.

Seen as having the potential to win, Annamalai 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.

What could have gone wrong for Annamalai is a matter of deep analysis, though some electoral points are apparent.

The DMK, after a long gap, decided to contest from Coimbatore to take on the BJP. A former city mayor, Ganapathy Rajkumar's popularity and the ruling DMK's focus on a string of welfare schemes, including fare-free travel for women in buses, appears to have not only warded off some anti-incumbency like discontent among MSMEs over the high cost of electricity, but it has also gone against Annamalai.

Chief Minister Stalin's refrain on Modi's "twin attack" of demonetisation and GST implementation hitting industries in the western region could be one of the factors against the BJP.

The AIADMK, which wielded enormous clout over Coimbatore and nearby western parts of the state for decades and had even dismissed an edge for Annamalai as 'maya', has obviously reaped the benefit of its influence and walked away with over 2,09,000 votes.

Like the BJP, the AIADMK also often used the same line of campaign, accusing the DMK of being a "corporate company" and a "family party", and anti-DMK votes have apparently got divided.

Annamalai had became quite popular with his assertive style. Chief of the BJP's erstwhile partner AIADMK Edappadi K Palaniswami even alleged in April that the saffron party had tried to split his outfit.

When the high-profile DMK Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan was moved from the Finance department to Information Technology in May 2023, it was widely believed that it was a fallout of an audio clip leaked by Annamalai.

Then, Annamalai, who had already been generating political controversies, made solid gains in the perception battle, which was all about whether it was the BJP or AIADMK that would question the powers that be and perform the role of a vibrant opposition party.

Months later, 39-year old Annamalai as the BJP candidate in the Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency was consistent in challenging both the ruling DMK and main opposition AIADMK. By releasing RTI documents on the ceding of Katchatheevu, the Congress party also came under his fierce attack.

AIADMK leaders even alleged that Annamalai spoke ill of Dravidian icon CN Annadurai and late party supremo J Jayalalithaa and that it was the trigger for snapping of ties with the BJP last year.

All of this make it clear that Annamalai travelled a long way in party politics after losing in Aravakurichi assembly segment in the 2021 assembly election. PTI