CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai, State unit vice president Nainar Nagendran, veteran leader Pon Radhakrishnan, and Union Minister of State L Murugan. These leaders that the Saffron party fielded in this Lok Sabha election were to be powerhouse candidates who would put up a strong contest, and perhaps even win.
However, as results are trickling in, none of them look like getting lead, let along winning the race.
Though Annamalai, who played the key role in breaking the Saffron party’s alliance with the AIADMK, was widely speculated to win the election – at least as per the speculations among party supporters outside Tamil Nadu, he is trailing by nearly 40,000 votes as per latest numbers.
The only consolation, if it may be termed so, would be that he has garnered more than double as that of AIADMK’s Singai G Ramachandran. It may be noted that Coimbatore is part of the Kongu belt, which is known to be AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami’s fiefdom.
At Tirunelveli, Nainar Nagendran was touted to win due to his political history which was scripted when he was with the AIADMK. However, he is trailing Congress’s Robert Bruce by more than 77,000 votes. Incidentally, AIADMK’s M Jansi Rani is in the fourth position, behind even the NTK candidate.
Former president of the BJP’s State unit and Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan is lagging behind Congress’s Vijay Vasanth by more than 1.23 lakh votes. Here too, the AIADMK candidate is behind the NTK candidate.
At Nilgiris, senior DMK leader A Raja has recorded a substantial lead of more than 1.36 lakh votes, while MoS Murugan and AIADMK’s Lokesh Tamilselvan are caught in an intense fight for second position.