Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Kuppuswamy Annamalai held a road show on April 17 in Coimbatore, which is set to see a highly anticipated battle unfold between the DMK, the AIADMK, and the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections.
Today marked the last phase of the election campaign in the Coimbatore parliamentary constituency, which goes to polls on April 19. The Tamil Nadu BJP chief was seen waving at the top of a campaign vehicle on the outskirts of Coimbatore at Kavundampalayam rural areas.
Annamalai faces DMK leader Ganapathy P Rajkumar and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam AIADMK’s Singai Ramachandran in the high stakes poll battle. Earlier, Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai released the manifesto for the Coimbatore constituency for the Lok Sabha elections.
The promises include the establishment of the Indian Institute of Management, the offices of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in Coimbatore city. The Prime Minister in his praise for Annamalai stated that he is a very good leader and that everybody gets an opportunity in the BJP, which is not a “family-based party.”
“Annamalai is a very good leader, articulate. He is young. He has left his job as an IPS cadre. Other people think that he left such a big career and joined the BJP. If he had gone to DMK, he would have become a big name. He didn’t go there. He came to the BJP. People think that he has gone to the BJP because he has belief in the party. So it has become a source of attraction. And the specialty of my party is that we give an opportunity to every level, every small and big worker who has the capacity. We don’t have any family-based parties. There are parties (Opposition) that have the mission: of the family, by the family and for the family. And that’s why everyone gets an opportunity here,” the PM had said.
PM Modi has already made multiple to Tamil Nadu this year ahead of the Lok Sabha election. Jharkhand Governor CP Radhakrishnan, who was the BJP candidate from Coimbatore in the past two Lok Sabha elections of 2019 and 2014, had suffered back-to-back defeats.
All 39 seats in Tamil Nadu will vote in a single phase on April 19 in Lok Sabha polls that will be held in seven phases. Votes will be counted on June 4. In 2019, the DMK-led alliance swept the Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu, winning 38 of 39 seats.
(with inputs from ANI)
