One of the few standard BJP leaders in Tamil Nadu, Coimbatore South candidate Vanathi Srinivasan was thought of a sure-shot winner. However, the 51-year-old’s pitch has been queered by the entry of Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) chief and actor Kamal Haasan within the race.
Haasan, who was initially anticipated to contest from Alandur in Chennai, finally went with Coimbatore South — the Assembly section the place the MNM obtained greater than 1 lakh votes within the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. If Haasan is banking on his star worth, Srinavasan, the nationwide president of the BJP Mahila Morcha, is relying on her work within the space. Congress candidate Mayura Jayakumar is a distant third, regardless of ally DMK.
A constituency with largely middle-class and upper-middle-class households, Coimbatore South has about 12% higher caste Hindu voters of north Indian descent who’re seen as BJP supporters. While greater than 10% voters belong to minority communities, Srinivasan is a suitable title due to her reasonable picture.
Srinivasan says the MNM did properly in 2019 as its candidate R Mahendran was a neighborhood, and belongs to the influential Chettiar neighborhood. “He got more votes where they have a presence. He also did some work locally, organising youth camps, and above all, there was a pro-DMK wave in 2019,” she says, including, “There is no such wave now. Rather, the BJP image has improved. As a leader familiar to everyone, I have helped ensure central government schemes reach people from all walks of life.”
She additionally claims that the anger over demonetisation and GST implementation on this metropolis of MSMEs has largely been tackled. Srinivasan says she ensured that each criticism obtained a listening to and facilitated talks between the business and Centre.
Srinavasan’s workplace in Coimbatore metropolis is without doubt one of the most vibrant ballot places of work within the state, unfold over two flooring. There are crowds outdoors to fulfill her, together with youths, Sangh Parivar activists, and households in search of selfies. A person in his 80s tells Srinivasan he has come from Salem “just to see her”.
Politics is an unlikely trajectory for Srinivasan, who’s married to a businessman and whose household’s solely political hyperlink was a farmers’ agitation within the early Nineteen Seventies during which her father obtained arrested. She explains it was her ardour for Tamil poet Subramania Bharati and Swami Vivekananda that drove her. “They instilled nationalism in me. I entered politics through a Vivekananda study circle run by the ABVP in my college days.”
While her two earlier ballot stints have been failures, from Mylapore Assembly seat in 2011 and Coimbatore South in 2016, she did seize eyeballs for a marketing campaign centred round ‘Coffee With Vanathi’. Plus, this time the BJP has the benefit of being in alliance with the AIADMK.
Last week, confirming apprehension that the AIADMK is now completely underneath the thumb of the BJP, a gaggle of Srinivasan supporters allegedly demanded that the title of Tamil Nadu be modified to Dakshin Bharath. Srinivasan denies this.
Her battle as a girl chief hasn’t been simple, and allegations proceed that native BJP leaders have been detached to her marketing campaign. Srinivasan says, “Women leaders face issues everywhere… But I see it as a mix of good and bad things in a family… I focus on serving the people.”
Besides, her family is behind her. Her “poll strategists”, she says, are her two teenage sons.
