"Confident that we will deliver the seat," Annamalai on being fielded from Coimbatore
A Karnataka cadre IPS officer, Annamalai, resigned from service in 2019 and joined the BJP in 2020.
ANI
State BJP president K Annamalai
CHENNAI: After the BJP fielded K Annamalai from Coimbatore for the Lok Sabha polls, the Tamil Nadu BJP president expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that Coimbatore is an important seat and he is confident that he will deliver the seat. Speaking to ANI, the state BJP president asserted that the party is confident that in the Lok Sabha elections, Tamil Nadu will play a very important role.
"We are very thankful to our Prime Minister Narendra Modi, National Party President JP Nadda, and Home Minister Amit Shah and senior leadership for announcing the lists. The first list of 9 candidates for Tamil Nadu has come and a second list may come soon. The BJP this time is fighting for 19 seats and four seats are alliance partners fighting with our symbols. There are a total of 23 seats where Lotus is fighting and we are extremely confident this time in Tamil Nadu will give a larger mandate," the BJP president said. He further said that the Bharatiya Janata Party is going to contest in Coimbatore with all humility.
"Coimbatore is an important seat, we are going to take on the Dravidian ecosystem there. I am confident that our Karyakartas will work hard. I am confident that we will deliver that seat. Of course, it is going to be a tough fight. The DMK is going to throw everything at me but we are prepared. With all humility, we are going to face the people of Coimbatore," he added. Annamalai further said that the party would present their report card for the last 10 years in front of the people.
"We will present our report card of last 10 years and under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we will give a mandate of 400 seats. The Prime Minister will come back for the third straight time after the elections," he said. Earlier, with an eye on the Lok Sabha polls, Annamalai went on 'En Mann, En Makkal' padayatra, which covered all the 234 Assembly constituencies of Tamil Nadu.
The padyatra was flagged off by Home Minister Amit Shah and the event marking its culmination in February was attended by PM Modi. The BJP on Thursday released a list of nine Lok Sabha candidates for Tamil Nadu, fielding former Telangana Governor and party leader Tamilisai Soundarajan from Chennai South and Annamalai from Coimbatore.
A Karnataka cadre IPS officer, Annamalai, resigned from service in 2019 and joined the BJP in 2020. He was appointed BJP state president a year late. The AIADMK has chosen Singai G Ramachandran, head of the party's IT wing, as its nominee for the Coimbatore Lok Sabha seat.
The voting for all 39 seats in Tamil Nadu will go to the polls in the first phase on April 19. During the 2019 general elections, the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance, which comprised Congress, VCK, MDMK, CPI, CPI(M), IUML, MMK, KMDK, TVK, AIFB, registered a landslide victory by winning 38 of the 39 seats.
In 2019, DMK won 23 Lok Sabha seats with 33.2 per cent vote share, Congress bagged 8 seats with 12.9 per cent vote and CPI won two seats in Tamil Nadu. The election for 543 Lok Sabha seats in the country will be held in seven phases starting April 19. Nearly 97 crore voters are eligible to cast votes in the general election.
