The Karur Lok Sabha seat in Tamil Nadu will see a three-cornered fight from where the sitting Congress MP S Jothimani is seeking re-election. The AIADMK has fielded KRL Thangavel while BJP’s candidate is VV Senthilnathan.
In the 2019 general elections, Jothimani trounced her nearby opponent and senior AIADMK leader M Thambidurai by a margin of 4,20,546 votes. Jothimani got 6,95,697 votes while Thambidurai secured 2,75,151 votes. The Congress was in alliance with the DMK in that election and in the upcoming election as well.
In 2019, AIADMK and BJP were in an alliance but in 2024 the situation is different.
The Karur Lok Sabha constituency comprises Vedasandur, Aravakurichi, Karur, Krishnarayapuram, Manapparai, and Viralimalai Assembly constituencies. Of these, the DMK won in five while the AIADMK could only get the Viralimalai Assembly constituency.
This gives the Congress-DMK alliance an advantage over its opponents. Another factor that is supporting the sitting MP is the huge clout wielded by senior DMK leader and former minister Senthil Balaji, who is the sitting MLA from Karur. Balaji is now in jail but he has a considerable influence across the Lok Sabha constituency.
A senior AIADMK leader while speaking to IANS said, “In the 2019 general elections, AIADMK was in alliance with BJP. This had kept many Muslim minority voters away from us. In this election, a huge chunk of Muslim voters will support us, and our candidate Thangavel also has good networking abilities. These factors will take us to victory in this Lok Sabha election.”
Jothimani told IANS, “The Congress party is fighting this elections along with DMK and other alliance partners of the INDIA bloc to usher in a secular, democratic government in the country. The people of Karur will re-elect me in 2024 also.”
The BJP has fielded its young face, Karur district president VV Senthilnathan, from the seat.
Karur is the hometown of BJP state president K Annamalai, who is contesting from Coimbatore.
In 1996, the BJP fielded its leader RK Madhukumar from here, but he managed only 5,890 votes. And after that it is for the first time that the BJP has a candidate contesting from Karur.