BJP: The party believes that the BJP has grown in Coimbatore over the past few years. For this reason, the central government has brought many schemes in Coimbatore in the last few years. The first Vande Bharat in the state was also set up between Chennai and Coimbatore. Many such schemes can be said.
The BJP hopes to win the Coimbatore Lok Sabha seat, with BJP’s Vanathi Srinivasan already being the MLA from the Coimbatore South constituency. Because of this, BJP state president Annamalai has directly entered the field in Coimbatore. Why BJP considers Coimbatore as its stronghold.. Let’s see how BJP has performed there in the past.
Coimbatore Lok Sabha Constituency: Before that, let’s see a little about Coimbatore. Coimbatore is the most important city in Tamil Nadu in terms of urbanization after Chennai. The industrial city of Coimbatore is teeming with factories. At the same time, agriculture is still significant there. Apart from this, Coimbatore has a very prominent position in the IT sector as well. Coimbatore is a city with integrated development of many sectors.
Since 1952, Coimbatore has held 19 Lok Sabha elections, of which the Left has won a maximum of 8 times. Next Congress has won 6 times. While DMK and BJP have won twice, AIADMK has won once.
BJP win: With the BJP contesting Coimbatore since 1989, their vote bank has grown significantly. However, the turning point came in the 1998 elections. In that election, the BJP, which formed an alliance with the AIADMK, won a total of 3 constituencies. The main one is Coimbatore. CP Radhakrishnan, who contested on the BJP’s behalf, secured 4.49 lakh votes and won by a margin of about 1.44 lakh votes.
It was during this election that the bomb blast happened in Coimbatore. Experts point out that this incident targeting Advani has won sympathy votes for the BJP. Elections were held again in 1999 after the central government was toppled within a year due to Jayalalithaa’s withdrawal of support. This time, BJP contested in DMK alliance and won 4 seats including Coimbatore. This is the maximum BJP win in Tamil Nadu in the history of Lok Sabha elections.
CP Radhakrishnan: CP Radhakrishnan, who re-entered the field on behalf of the BJP in Coimbatore, secured 4.3 lakh votes and won by a margin of about 54,000 votes. Winning two consecutive elections like this has given the BJP a huge boost of confidence. After that right-wing organizations started working there.
However, the BJP was never able to win the subsequent elections. In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, CP Radhakrishnan again contested from the AIADMK alliance on behalf of the BJP. However, he was defeated by a margin of 1.64 lakh votes by leftist candidate K. Subrayan who was in the DMK alliance.
Vote Bank: In terms of vote share, the BJP got 55% of the votes in 1998 and around 50% in 1999. However, in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP’s vote bank declined to 38%. The next election in 2009 was even worse for the BJP. BJP’s Selvakumar was relegated to the 5th position in that election. He managed to secure only 4% of the votes i.e. 38 thousand votes.
In 2014, with the Modi wave sweeping across the country, the BJP thought it could win in Coimbatore. Because of this, CP Radhakrishnan was again fielded there. The AIADMK candidate won the election despite a tough competition. CP Radhakrishnan lost by a margin of just 42 thousand votes. His vote bank is 33% percent.
Increased Vote Percentage: Even if it fails in this, it can be said that it is a comeback for BJP. Because the vote bank has increased by around 30%. In this election, there was a multi-faceted contest between AIADMK, BJP, DMK, Congress and the Left. In it, the BJP came second, leaving many parties behind, including the DMK.
With the BJP entering the AIADMK alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, CP Radhakrishnan once again secured second place. He secured 31% vote bank i.e. 3.92 lakh votes. It is noteworthy that the People’s Justice Center secured 1.45 lakh votes and came 3rd.
Fierce Competition: In this way, BJP is constantly giving competition there. Due to this, this time they have fielded BJP state president Annamalai. However, there is fierce competition. While the AIADMK generally has more influence in Coimbatore, Singhai Ramachandran is contesting there. Former mayor Ganapathi Rajkumar is contesting on behalf of DMK. Due to this, the competition there is fierce.