CHENNAI: The constituencies allocated to the BJP for the upcoming state Assembly elections were announced on Wednesday with a majority of the seats (11) concentrated in southern Tamil Nadu. The party has been given only one seat each in Chennai and Coimbatore, both considered key areas for the BJP.
The BJP had contested 20 constituencies in the 2021 Assembly elections, polling 34.26% of the votes in the seats it contested and 2.73% across TN. The party won four seats — Coimbatore South (Vanathi Srinivasan), Nagercoil (M R Gandhi), Tirunelveli (Nainar Nagenthran) and Modakurichi (C K Saraswathi). Of these, only Modakurichi has been allocated to the party this time. Out of the 27, eight were also allotted in the 2021 elections.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, which the BJP contested without the support of the AIADMK, the party secured second place in 15 of the 27 Assembly segments now allocated to it, third in nine segments and fourth in three.
In the Kanniyakumari parliamentary constituency, the BJP finished second in all six Assembly segments. However, even if the votes polled by the BJP and AIADMK are combined, the alliance would have led in only one segment — Nagercoil, and that too by a narrow margin. For instance, in Vilavancode, the BJP and AIADMK polled 53,649 and 4,141 votes respectively, while the Congress secured 87,668 votes.
A similar trend is visible in Chennai. While the BJP has been allotted Mylapore, vote consolidation would not have been sufficient for a win there. The only Assembly segment in the constituency where a combined BJP-AIADMK vote could have ensured victory is T Nagar.
Among the seats where such consolidation could potentially have ensured victory are Thalli, Madurai South, Avinashi, Coimbatore North, Tirupattur, Vasudevanallur and Manamadurai among the 27.