Bharatiya Janata Party's hopes, to make inroads into Tamil Nadu assembly through Coimbatore, crash yet again. Coimbatore (South) constituency, where the BJP launched an aggressive campaign and posed Vanathi Srinivasan as the change people wanted to see, failed drastically as she ended up losing with a margin of over 26,000 votes.
After finishing a close second in the Lok Sabha election in 2014 in Coimbatore, BJP sensed a chance to win in the region and several party heavyweights including Prime Minister Narendra Modi , national party president Amit Shah, ministers such as Venkaih Naidu, Nirmala Seetharaman and Ravi Shankar Prasad visited the city and campaigned for Vanathi Srinivasan.
The constituency was won by the AIADMK candidate Amman K Arjunan who got 59, 788 votes.
Vanathi Sreenivasan launched an aggressive campaign promising implementation of smart city scheme and several infrastructure projects including an IIM for the city. The party cadres said that they expected Coimbatore (South) to be the bright spot for BJP in Tamil Nadu mainly because the constituency had supported the party in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Some senior members of the party said while lack of alliance parties was a major reason for their loss, lack of leadership at the state level also played a role in their defeat.
"In 2014, PMK, DMDK, MDMK were part of the NDA and that helped us gain popularity. This time, though we were defeated, we are happy that our vote share has increased in all the constituencies," said G K S Selvakumar, state secretary of BJP.
The party contested in 60 constituencies in the state and said they expected to win in Kanyakumari and Coimbatore. R Nandakumar, the party's candidate for Kavundampalayam constituency in Coimbatore who managed to get 22,444 votes and stood third said their main problem was that the rural segment did not vote for them. "While our campaign struck a chord with the urban population, it was tough for us to reach out to the rural population in such a short time. But we are extremely satisfied with our performance as our vote share has increased and we will be a stronger party in the local body elections," he said.
Vanathi Srinivasan also said that she worked really hard and would continue to work for the constituency.
"Money power did play an important role in this election. But we are happy with our performance and we will work on the local leadership and grow the party further in this region," she said.
After finishing a close second in the Lok Sabha election in 2014 in Coimbatore, BJP sensed a chance to win in the region and several party heavyweights including Prime Minister Narendra Modi , national party president Amit Shah, ministers such as Venkaih Naidu, Nirmala Seetharaman and Ravi Shankar Prasad visited the city and campaigned for Vanathi Srinivasan.
The constituency was won by the AIADMK candidate Amman K Arjunan who got 59, 788 votes.
Vanathi Sreenivasan launched an aggressive campaign promising implementation of smart city scheme and several infrastructure projects including an IIM for the city. The party cadres said that they expected Coimbatore (South) to be the bright spot for BJP in Tamil Nadu mainly because the constituency had supported the party in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Some senior members of the party said while lack of alliance parties was a major reason for their loss, lack of leadership at the state level also played a role in their defeat.
"In 2014, PMK, DMDK, MDMK were part of the NDA and that helped us gain popularity. This time, though we were defeated, we are happy that our vote share has increased in all the constituencies," said G K S Selvakumar, state secretary of BJP.
The party contested in 60 constituencies in the state and said they expected to win in Kanyakumari and Coimbatore. R Nandakumar, the party's candidate for Kavundampalayam constituency in Coimbatore who managed to get 22,444 votes and stood third said their main problem was that the rural segment did not vote for them. "While our campaign struck a chord with the urban population, it was tough for us to reach out to the rural population in such a short time. But we are extremely satisfied with our performance as our vote share has increased and we will be a stronger party in the local body elections," he said.
Vanathi Srinivasan also said that she worked really hard and would continue to work for the constituency.
"Money power did play an important role in this election. But we are happy with our performance and we will work on the local leadership and grow the party further in this region," she said.