AIADMK retains its stronghold even after shuffling of constituencies, candidates

The leaders got the son-of-the-soil reception wherever they contested: Kovai Sathyan

The Assembly election results have proved that constituencies in Coimbatore district remained a stronghold of the AIADMK even when the party shuffled incumbent candidates to work out alliance equations.

G. Arunkumar who won from Coimbatore North in 2016 contested from Kavundampalayam and won with a margin of 9,776 votes defeating DMK’s local strongman R. Krishnan alias Paiya Gounder.

The party had sent Mr. Arunkumar to the fray replacing V.C. Arukutty who made consecutive wins in 2011 and 2016 from Kavundampalayam – the constituency with the highest electorate in Coimbatore district.

Coimbatore north this time elected Amman K. Arjunan who won from Coimbatore South in 2016. Party workers had staged minor protests when the AIADMK front gave south to BJP’s Vanathi Srinivasan as part of the seat sharing. While Mr. Arjunan had a margin of 17,419 votes in 2016, it shrunk to 4,001 this time.

Mettupalayam was another constituency where AIADMK chose to replace the incumbent MLA. Veteran O.K. Chinnaraj who made three consecutive victories from 2006 was replaced by A.K. Selvaraj, the winner in 2001. Mr. Selvaraj, however, had a tough fight with DMK’s T.R. Shanmugasundaram and managed to win by a margin of 2,456 votes.

“AIADMK leaders were with the people whenever they were in need. They have seen how Coimbatore changed under their leadership. The infrastructures that have come up, augmentation of Siruvani water scheme and ease of doing business are a few to name,” said AIADMK spokesperson Kovai Sathyan who names S.P. Velumani the architect of the victory. “All the leaders are easily approachable to people. They got the son-of-the-soil reception wherever they contested,” he added.

The party is seeing another promising leader in K.R. Jayaram, urban district secretary of MGR youth wing, who defeated DMK’s N. Karthik in Singanallur constituency.

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