Four Seats BJP Is Hoping To Win In Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu has been receiving much attention from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, over the last few years. Under the K Annamalai, the party has made progress in the state. The exit polls too have predicted that the NDA can win a few seats along with achieving a substantial increase in vote share.

Here are four seats that the party would be keen on winning.

Coimbatore

This seat is undoubtedly at the centre of national attention due to the candidature of Annamalai. It is however not going to be an easy contest as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) are likely to put up a good fight. 

While Coimbatore is a seat where the BJP has been strong and has secured over 30 per cent votes even without an alliance with the AIADMK, the western Tamil Nadu region is also a stronghold of the latter.

The 2019 elections were won by the CPI(M), which was in alliance with the DMK. This time, the DMK itself is contesting the seat. It has fielded Ganapathy Rajkumar, former mayor of the city, who joined the party from the AIADMK.

The AIADMK has fielded Singai G Ramachandran, the son of a former MLA. Like Annamalai, Ramachandran too is an alumnus of PSG Tech in Coimbatore and has been to an IIM.

Chennai South 

A high profile seat, where the 'who’s who' of Tamil Nadu reside — the contest here is between Tamilisai Soundararajan of the BJP, a former state president of the party who recently quit as the Governor of Telangana to rejoin electoral politics, Thamizhachi Thangapandian of the DMK, and J Jayavardhan of the AIADMK.

While Thamizhachi Thangapandian is the sister of the state’s Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu, Jayavardhan is the son of the AIADMK’s organising secretary D Jayakumar. 

Thamizhachi Thangapandian won the seat in 2019 by defeating Jayavardhan.

Tirunelveli

This seat in South Tamil Nadu stands out because, among all the candidates in the fray, the BJP candidate, Nainar Nagendran, is the most well-known. Nagendran is currently the MLA from Tirunelveli and is the vice president of the party. He was a minister in the AIADMK government between 2001 and 2006.

He is facing Robert Bruce of the Congress and M Jansi Rani of the AIADMK.

Kanyakumari

This is the party’s second stronghold in Tamil Nadu. Veteran leader and former Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan is taking on the Congress’ Vijay Vasanth and the AIADMK’s Basilion Nazareth.

The fight is mainly between the BJP and the Congress here. The last time Radhakrishnan won the seat, i.e., in 2014, the DMK and the Congress were not in alliance. This time, the two of them are together, making it more difficult for him to win.