New Delhi [India], April 17 : As Tamil Nadu goes to the polls on April 19 in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, Ramanathapuram remains a crucial constituency of Tamil Nadu as the BJP stands in support of former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, who is contesting as an independent candidate against AIADMK's Jayaperumal and K Navaskani from the Indian Union Muslim League, an ally of the DMK.
Chandraprabha has been fielded by the Naam Tamilar Katchi party from the Ramanathapuram Lok Sabha constituency.
The Ramanathapuram constituency is currently held by the Indian Union Muslim League, an ally of the ruling DMK.
In 2019, IUML's Kani K Nawas emerged victorious with 469,943 votes, followed by the BJP's Nainar Nagendran with 342,821 votes and independent candidate VDN Anand with 141,806 votes.
In 2014, AIADMKs A Anwar Raja won the seat with 405,945 votes, followed by DMKs S Mohammed Jaleel with 286,621 votes.
The election is critical for O Panneerselvam who recently lost the chair of the AIDMK to his rival Edapadi Palanaiswamy. Panneerselvam will be hoping that victory brings him back to the big stage and enables him to depose EPS in the AIADMK.
Earlier, BJP national president JP Nadda held a roadshow in Ramanathapuram constituency in support of O Panneerselvam, who is contesting as an independent candidate, backed by the BJP.
Thousands of BJP's and Panneerselvam's supporters turned up for the roadshow, with many carrying BJP flags and placards showing the picture of OPs' election symbol, 'jackfruit'. Amid the sloganeering in support of the BJP and him, Nadda and Panneerselvam waved to the crowd from an open vehicle as it moved slowly.
Speaking at the rally, the BJP president said, "It was indeed a matter of great happiness to be part of this roadshow. The kind of enthusiasm that I saw in people has assured me that you are going to elect O. Pannerselvam. If you choose O. Pannerselvam, you will contribute to the Sankalp of Modiji for making India a developed India".
In Tamil Nadu, the BJP has aligned with a handful of regional parties, including Vanniyar caste leader S Ramadoss's PMK, former AIADMK leader T T V Dhinakaran's AMMK, former Congress leader G K Vasan's Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar) (TMC-M), Indhiya Jananayaga Katchi (IJK), and Puthiya Neethi Katchi.
The INDIA bloc in Tamil Nadu is led by the DMK and includes the Congress, Left parties, IUML, VCK, actor-politician Kamal Haasan's MNM, Vaiko's MDMK, and the Gounder community-based KMDK.
The principal opposition party in the state, AIADMK, which recently severed its ties with the BJP, has put together an alliance of minor parties, including the DMDK, Puthiya Tamilagam (PT) and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI).
All 39 seats in Tamil Nadu will be polled in the first phase of the general elections on April 19, and the counting of votes, along with those from other phases, has been scheduled for June 4.
During polling for the 2019 general elections, the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance, comprising the Congress, VCK, MDMK, CPI, CPI(M), IUML, MMK, KMDK, TVK, and AIFB, registered a landslide victory, winning 38 of the 39 seats.
The Congress, which was also a part of the alliance, bagged 8 seats out of the nine contested.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on the other hand, won only one seat. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Indian National Congress candidate V Vaithilingam won the only seat in the Puducherry Parliamentary Constituency.