Bharatiya Janata Party's star campaigner K Annamalai is defeated in Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore constituency as Dravida Munetra Kazhagam (DMK)'s Ganapathy Rajkumar won with over 5.68 lakh votes.
This was a crucial constituency for BJP as it fielded its Tamil Nadu party president K Annamalai to contest without any regional party support. Annamalai secured 4.5 lakh votes.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (AIADMK) is represented by Singai Ramachandran came in third with more than 2.36 lak votes.
This is a second defeat for Annamalai as he lost in Aravakurichi constituency during Tamil Nadu Assembly Polls in 2021. Coimbatore is the second-largest city in Tamil Nadu, comprises Palladam, Sulur, Kavundampalayam, Coimbatore (North), Coimbatore (South), and Singanallur assembly segments.
In 2019, Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM)’s PR Natarajan emerged victorious from Coimbatore with a total of 571,150 votes, constituting 46% of the votes. BJP's CP Radhakrishnan, secured the position of the runner-up with 392,007 votes, which accounted for 31% of the total votes.
In the 2014 general elections, AIADMK’s Nagarajan clinched the victory with 431,717 votes. Interestingly, In 1998, the region even gave an opportunity to the BJP and sent CP Radhakrishnan to the Parliament.
News18 Mega Exit Poll. stated that BJP is expected to make significant strides in Tamil Nadu's Lok Sabha elections, with state party president Annamalai set to win the Coimbatore constituency.
According to the News18 Mega Exit Poll 2024, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was said to secure 1-3 seats in Tamil Nadu, with the BJP-led NDA also projected to fall within the same range.
However, the poll results have shown that BJP did not open an account in Tamil Nadu even as its ally Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) has secured one seat in Dharmapuri constituency.
The Congress, on the other hand was estimated to secure 8-10 seats in the state, but it is its INDIA bloc ally, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has done the heavy lifting for the alliance.
All eyes were on Annamalai
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP drew a blank in the state, while it won just one seat in the 2014 polls. The BJP's vote share in the state declined from 5.5 percent in 2014 to 3.67 percent in 2019. However, the BJP has been striving to make inroads in the realm of Dravidian politics.
Interestingly, as per ECI data, BJP's vote share in the state has touched 10.72%. To be sure, compared to 2019 and 2014, BJP contested separately in more constituencies in 2024.
For the current election, the BJP was placing a big bet on Annamalai as it was looking to open its account in Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu with him.
Annamalai, who hails from Karur, quit the police service in September 2019 and joined the BJP in 2020. Despite losing the Assembly polls from Aravakurichi, he was elevated to the post of state party chief in the same year.
In his eight-year career, Annamalai gained a reputation for being a tough cop, leading undercover crackdowns on gutka sales, and campaigning against drug abuse.
“We should be somewhere close to 20 percent as BJP party, and somewhere close to 25 percent as NDA,” Annamalai had said before the poll results came out.
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