As AIADMK Hopes Rest on West TN, EPS Keen on Lion’s Share of Seats

The seats in the Coimbatore and Nilgiris districts are the major bone of contention in seat-sharing for the two parties in the region. As per the 2024 Lok Sabha statistics, the BJP occupied the second position in Sulur, Kavundampalayam, Coimbatore North, Coimbatore South, Singanallur and Kinathukadavu, besides all the three seats in the Nilgiris district. Palladam in Tiruppur district was the only other seat where the BJP garnered more votes than its Dravidian ally.

The stakes in seat-sharing in the western region is very high for the AIADMK since its prospects of getting MLAs from there is brighter than in other regions, and party leader Edappadi K. Palaniswami belongs to the Kongu region.

The districts of Salem, Namakkal, Erode, Tiruppur, Nilgiris and Coimbatore come under the western region, popularly known as the Kongu belt. The AIADMK-BJP alliance won 31 out of the 46 seats here in the 2021 Assembly polls and the 28 MLAs elected in the Kongu belt boosted the AIADMK tally in the Assembly.

Even when the AIADMK and BJP went separately in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the AIADMK proved that it is stronger than the BJP in the region by taking the first position in 4 four Assembly segments, and second place in 31 seats while the BJP occupied the second place only in 10 seats, its ally, the PMK, one.

The votes polled by the DMK front in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections are higher than the combined votes of the AIADMK, BJP and PMK in only 17 of the 46 Assembly segments, turning the region into the real battleground in the coming Assembly polls. The AIADMK leader had proved his party’s strength in other districts, including Salem, and could allot a few seats for the BJP which has a good presence.