Chennai, March 29(BPNS)
South Indian Super star turned politician, Kamal Haasan is facing a tough electoral battle at Coimbatore South from where he has filed his nomination papers for the upcoming assembly elections.
Kamal is fighting against BJP leader, Vanathi Srinivasan who is the National president of the party’s woman’s wing, the Mahila Morcha contesting as the AIADMK, BJP alliance candidate.
In the 2016 assembly elections the seat was won by Amman K Arjunan of the AIADMK who defeated the Congress, DMK candidate Mayura Jayakumar. Vanathi Srinivasan had come third with an impressive performance garnering 33,113 votes at 22 percent of the total votes polled.
With AIADMK candidate polling, 59,788 votes at 38.9 percentage and Vanathi collecting 33,113 votes at 21.57 percent ,it’s a cake walk for the NDA but election need not always be calculation but other factors may also chip in.
Congress leader Mayuri Jayakumar will be fighting the elections as the DMK, Congress combine candidate while the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam(AMMK) has fielded former AIADMK leader, Challenger R Doraisamy who is an industrialist
Mayura Jayakumar as a Congress candidate in the 2016 assembly elections had polled 42,369 votes at 27.60% and lost the elections to Amman K Arjunan of AIADMK.
Challenger Doraisamy was a former MLA of AIADMK who had defeated the then DMK candidate Pongalur N Palanisamy by a margin of 27,796 votes.
The CPM has also a presence in the constituency and the party candidate, C Padmanabhan had polled 7,248 votes at 4.7%.
Kamal Haasan is banking his hopes on the votes polled by his party Vice President R Mahendran’s good show in the 2019 parliament elections when the MNM had contested for the first time. Mahendran had polled 23,838 votes from the Coimbatore South assembly segment in the elections but was a distant third to PR Natarajan of the CPM, DMK combine who got 64,453 votes and CP Radhakrishnan of the BJP who garnered 46,368 votes.
The presence of Vanathi Srinivasan on the ground is much important and she is a popular leader in the constituency. The 22 percent votes she had garnered in the last assembly elections coupled with the votes of the AIADMK will easily put her through.
| Polling booths | 377 |
| Voters(Male) | 1,25,416 |
| Voters (Female) | 1,25,950 |
| Third gender | 23 |
| Total | 2,51,389 |
2016 Election result
| Total Voters | 2,45,307 |
| Votes polled | 1,53,533( 62.59%) |
| Amman K Arjunan (AIADMK) | 59,788 (38.94%) |
| Mayura S Jayakumar (Congress) | 42,369(27.60%) |
| Vanathi SrinivasaN (BJP) | 33,113( 21.57%) |
| C.Padmanabhan (CPM) | 7,248 (4.72%) |
| NOTA | :3,331(2.17%) |
