As voters in the 10 Assembly constituencies in Coimbatore chose AIADMK candidates to represent them in the next five years and voters elsewhere giving DMK a majority, the results have become a cause for concern.
A section of voters The Hindu spoke to wondered whether the district would get the infrastructure growth and development it needed when all the 10 MLAs it voted would be sitting only in the Opposition. The district could go the way the Singanallur MLA from the DMK, N. Karthik, had been complaining about his constituency from 2016 to 2021 – that the then ruling AIADMK government was ignoring his constituency because he was from the Opposition.
Similarly, there could be the possibility that the district could get very little from the incoming DMK dispensation because voters here had not elected even one of its party candidates, including Mr. Karthik who lost his seat.
Though the DMK government would not slowdown or stop the on-going infrastructure projects for fear of earning a bad name, it might not reward Coimbatore with schemes and projects as expected, said an industry captain, adding, “I fear it will be a step-motherly treatment.”
A civic activist said Coimbatore going all out to vote for the AIADMK would not have a big impact because no government had gone out of the way to address Coimbatore’s needs in the past few decades.
Only in the last few years, Coimbatore had seen some development in a few flyovers, but other than that there was very little to speak of. Therefore, there was nothing to be worried about, he added.
Consumer activist K. Kathirmathiyon said the defeated DMK candidates should work as shadow MLAs to work for the district’s development. This would not help the district grow, but help the party strengthen itself in Coimbatore.
The DMK candidates had lost not by a huge margin in many of the constituencies in the district and therefore, they should work keeping in mind their support base.
In fact, the DMK candidates could take a cue out of BJP’s Vanathi Srinivasan, who, after defeat in the 2016 election, made Coimbatore South her base and worked hard to finally win in 2021, he added.
DMK’s Mr. Karthik could not be reached for his comment. A few AIADMK MLAs to-be said they were unwilling to comment at this point in time.
