Politics | Western Tamil Nadu sees a three-way DMK-AIADMK-BJP battle

MK Stalin (File image: Twitter/@arivalayam)

Tamil Nadu’s prosperous western region has turned into a major political battle ground with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in power at the Centre, and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) which is in power in the state, trying to increase their presence in the region — a region which is a stronghold of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), the major opposition party in Tamil Nadu.

In Sangam literature, Tamil Nadu’s western region is part of the Kongu Naadu, which was never a political entity in itself, but was a geographical area comprising southern Karnataka extending beyond the Cauvery, a small portion of northern Kerala and western Tamil Nadu. Different parts of this region were ruled by local chieftains in the Sangam age (2,000 years ago), while later, the Chera and Chola rulers divided the region among themselves. The entire Cauvery basin from Southern Karnataka and eastern side of Kongu region were part of the Chola kingdom, while the western parts including Coimbatore were under the Chera kings.

Growing Presence

The Kongu region has 10 of Tamil Nadu’s 39 Parliament seats, and 57 of the 234 assembly seats. Coimbatore, with its extensive textile and IT industry, and over 30,000 MSMEs, is the second-most industrialised city in Tamil Nadu contributing around $45 billion (Rs 33,528 crore) to the state’s GDP.

Tiruppur, which is about 55 km east of Coimbatore but in the same region, is home to some of Asia’s largest garment manufacturing companies, exporting hosiery clothes to many countries. Tiruppur has over 10,000 garment manufacturing industries and employs over 600,000 people. It accounts for 90 percent of India's cotton knitwear export, and has contributed Rs 27, 650 crore in 2018-19 before the industry was struck by COVID-19-related lockdown.

The BJP, which for the first time won two assembly seats from the region in the elections earlier this year, has grand plans to consolidate its position in the Kongu belt. BJP’s national women’s wing president Vanathi Srinivasan won from the Coimbatore South assembly seat, and L Murugan, who hails from the region, has been a ministerial berth at the Centre.

The party has appointed K Annamalai, who belong to Kongu belt, as its state president, sending a clear message that the BJP wants to concentrate in the region. Both Srinivasan and Annamalai belong to the Kongu Velalar community known as Gounders to which most of the AIADMK leaders, including former chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, belong to. Murugan comes from the Arunthaiyar, who are an oppressed Dalit group which has a large presence in the region.

The 1998 bomb blasts in Coimbatore polarised votes along communal lines, but this did not politically help the BJP. However, the setting up of business by non-Tamils, particularly North Indians, in Coimbatore and Tiruppur, and the increasing number of North Indian workers which is estimated to be around 500,000 in both the districts, has boosted the BJP’s hopes in the western zone.

Caste Lines

The success of the AIADMK leadership dominated by leaders from the Gounder community, including Palaniswami, in mobilising the Gounder votes in their favour and winning 41 of the 57 assembly seats, has provided a new formula for the BJP. With a new role for Annamalai, the party hopes to mobilise the caste votes in its favour, since the AIADMK is facing divisions among its leaders and are struggling to avoid a rout in the forthcoming local body elections.

The DMK, which won only 16 of the 57 seats in Kongu belt, is hoping to utilise the current weakness in the AIADMK to its advantage. Ahead of the local body elections in September, the DMK is strengthening the party, by admitting prominent faces such as former Makkal Needhi Maiam vice-president R Mahendran, former minister Thoppu Venkatachalam and former MP PR Sundaram, both from the AIADMK.

The founder of the Dravidian movement EVR Periyar was born in Erode, a part of the region which was a hot bed of anti-Hindi agitations in 1965.Ever since the inception of the AIADMK in 1972, the region remains a stronghold of the party, but the fortress is being besieged from all the sides.

The future political course of Tamil Nadu will hinge on whether the BJP succeeds in gaining a foothold in the Kongu region, or on the DMK wresting the zone from the AIADMK.

Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.