High-stake battle in Coimbatore - 'Manchester of South India'
Coimbatore, where BJP has fielded its Tamil Nadu chief, DMK has taken the seat back from ally CPIM to put its own candidate and AIADMK has its IT wing head in the fray.
CPIM's PR Natarajan, backed by DMK, had won the Lok Sabha seat in 2019 with a vote share of 45.66%, with BJP's CP Radhakrishnan coming in second, getting 31.34% of the votes polled. In this election, DMK has fielded Ganapathy P Rajkumar, a former Coimbatore mayor who joined the party in 2020 after leaving AIADMK, going against its decade-long seat-sharing agreement with CPM for the seat, possibly anticipating a tough fight owing to BJP candidate Annamalai's growing popularity. AIADMK candidate is Singai Ramachandran. Annamalai is predicting BJP to win the seat with 60% votes.
Coimbatore, comprising the assembly segments of Coimbatore South, Coimbatore North, Kavundampalayam, Singanallur, Sulur and Palladam, is one of the constituencies in the South where BJP is putting a lot of focus, making its rival parties also to be on high alert. The constituency has seen repeated visits by high-profile leaders to back their candidates. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Coimbatore again on Wednesday. TN chief minister MK Stalin and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will hold a joint rally of the INDIA bloc in the city on Friday in support of Rajkumar.
Being a thriving industrial region, concerns in the constituency surround policies and the health of micro, small and medium enterprises. GST-related issues and raw material cost have been major pain points for
