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Coimbatore: Left or Right, it’s tough fight
The saffron party’s candidate, a two-time MP, hopes to capitalise on the AIADMK’s vote base in the textile capital.
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Coimbatore
The fight for Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency is expected to be closely-contested affair with BJP’s C P Radhakrishnan, a two-time MP from the same seat, locking horns with CPM’s P R Natarajan.
The presence of a large north Indian population, who are traditionally known to back the BJP, may boost the party’s prospects. Its candidate is a known face and has cultivated a voter base for himself.
Even in the last Lok Sabha polls when the AIADMK was riding high on the popularity of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, Radhakrishnan came second securing 33.12 per cent vote share as against AIADMK’s P Nagarajan, who became the MP garnering 36.69 per cent of the total votes polled.
However, the BJP remains haunted by the demons of GST, demonetisation and unemployment. Several micro and medium industrial units were shut, leading to employers becoming employees to sustain their livelihood. The Coimbatore LS constituency has six Assembly segments, namely Coimbatore North, Coimbatore South, Kavundampalayam, Singanallur, Sulur and Palladam.
These issues are being raised constantly by Natarajan, who has vowed to revive the flailing industrial sector in the region. His promise to improve employment opportunities and ease the ill-effects of GST is likely to turn the tables in his favour. The CPM candidate, who was the Coimbatore MP between 2009-2014, is known to be easily accessible and readily takes up public issues.
The prevailing anti-incumbency against the AIADMK and the poor show by incumbent MP P Nagarajan may give the CPM candidate an edge over his rival.
Coimbatore, which has a well-established industrial set up, is traditionally known to root for the Left parties, which have won a record seven times in this Lok Sabha segment. However, with mills and industrial units losing their sheen, the voter base of communist parties has gradually eroded over the years.
The AMMK, which plays on the caste factor in southern and delta districts, is not expected to split the votes of the AIADMK in this Gounder-dominated the western segment. This may, in fact,help the BJP candidate breathein relief.
Constituency watch
PR NATARAJAN
He was a former Coimbatore MP during 2009- 14. Born in 1950, Natarajan has led trade union organisations, especially for the un-organised labour sector. Natarajan has been associated with the CPM since 1968 and has held various positions. His father-in-law K Ramani was a veteran CPM leader, who represented the Coimbatore Lok Sabha segment in 1967-71.
CP RADHAKRISHNAN
He is a two-time member of the Lok Sabha from Coimbatore constituency (1998 and 1999). He won by a margin of over 1,50,000 votes in 1998, which was reduced to a margin of 55,000 in the 1999 elections. A former state president of BJP, he was the chairman of Coir Board, which comes under the Ministry of MSME. In 2012, he courted arrest in Mettupalayam demanding action against culprits who assaulted an RSS activist.
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