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DMK looks to make inroads in chief minister Palaniswami’s bastion of west TN
Chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami and top cabinet ministers belong to western Tamil Nadu that plays a crucial role in determining electoral outcomes with 50 assembly seats
The opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) is taking aim at western Tamil Nadu, seeking to wrest the region from the grip of the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), in the upcoming assembly elections as it seeks to bounce back from 10 years in the political wilderness.
Chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami and top cabinet ministers belong to the region that plays a crucial role in determining electoral outcomes. The region comprises over 50 assembly seats. DMK chief M K Stalin took on Palaniswami on Monday on the latter’s home turf in Salem district, saying that’s where AIADMK’s downfall would begin.
“What have they done for the Edappadi constituency despite winning the seat for so many years,” Stalin asked. Since 2001, AIADMK and allies have won the seat but in 2006 it was won by DMK’s ally PMK. Palaniswami was elected from this constituency in 1989 and has won three more times from here. On Wednesday he filed his application to contest from the Edappadi constituency again for 2021 polls.
The western belt is popularly known as the Kongu belt. The DMK swept the 2019 parliamentary elections,38 out of 39 seats, but in the subsequent civic polls, the AIADMK won back the loyalty of its electorate. Few days ago, Palaniswami called the region his party’s “fort of steel” on the campaign trail in Coimbatore.
Last week in Coimbatore, Stalin vowed: “It’s time to prove the wrong perception that Kongu region is an AIADMK stronghold. The DMK has already broken this perception in the 2019 Parliamentary polls. This election too, the DMK alliance will win all the constituencies in the Kongu region,” he said on February 19 in a campaign titled Stalin in your Constituency.
In December, Stalin launched a state-wide protest from Salem in support of agitating farmers in the capital who were demanding repeal of the three new farm laws. In November, DMK MP Kanimozhi was among 15 party leaders to launch its campaign to “highlight 10 years of AIADMK misrule.” The campaign started from the Edappadi constituency.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, out of the 20 seats that the AIADMK contested, seven were in western Tamil Nadu--Salem, Krishnagiri, Namakkal, Erode, Tirupur, Pollachi and the Nilgiris. The DMK contested only four constituencies in the region, but the electorate favoured the party, which won 38 out of the 39 Lok Sabha seats across the state.
The victory was all the more sweet because the DMK won Salem after a gap of 39 years. Salem has six assembly segments- Omalur, Edappadi, Salem (West), Salem (East), Salem (North) and Veerapadi. “We bagged up to 200,000 votes more than AIADMK in each of the segments,” Stalin said earlier.
In the local body polls held later in the same year, the AIADMK established a clear majority in Salem, Coimbatore, Namakkal and Dharmapuri. In the previous assembly elections in 2011 and 2016, the region had favoured the AIADMK.
The AIADMK has for long enjoyed support of the Gounder, which has a strong presence in western Tamil Nadu. “CM enjoys the emotional support of this region; in his campaigns you can see the difference in the quality of the crowd gathered here as opposed to other districts like Villupuram,” said political analyst Ravindran Duraisamy. “AIADMK’s performance would be better here.”
Besides Palaniswami, ministers holding heavyweight portfolios such as SP Velumani for municipal administration and electricity minister P Thangamani hail from this region. “These ministers have failed to deliver. But they have some sort of a stronghold and we want to break that,” said a senior DMK leader on condition of anonymity.
DMK’s eight-member election manifesto committee, in its first phase, covered 13 districts from the Nilgiris to Coimbatore to Krishnagiri along the west coast.
“There are several issues in the western belt,” said TKS Elangovan, a member of the committee and DMK spokesperson. “Youngsters want employment, most of the grievances came from farmers; and industrialists want the periodicity reduced for filing GST”, he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Coimbatore on February 25 to launch government projects. “Modi-ji is also likely to launch BJP’s rally here as we have more support in Coimbatore,” said a BJP leader, requesting anonymity.
