The different problems DMK & BJP have in Coimbatore | Powertrip

Welcome to Powertrip, a newsletter exclusively curated for TNM subscribers by Dhanya Rajendran, Shabbir Ahmed, and Pooja Prasanna. In this issue, we look at the BJP’s continuing woes in Tamil Nadu, what its deserters in Karnataka want, and how the party has brought fashion influencers into the political arena..Inside TrackExclusive stories, for your eyes only.Who will contest for BJP in Tamil Nadu is still up in the airIn the last edition of PowerTrip we told you that Tamil Nadu BJP president and former IPS officer Annamalai doesn’t want to contest in this Lok Sabha election. Though a few TV channels have predicted a massive increase in BJP’s vote share in the Dravidian fortress, what we hear is that the party is struggling to convince allies like OPS, TTV, Puthiya Tamilagam to contest under the lotus symbol.The second problem for the BJP is who will contest from the party. A meeting chaired by PM Narendra Modi has decided that Annamalai has to contest. Annamalai has been insisting that his focus is on the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections and he would like to skip the Lok Sabha polls. The state unit has been claiming that they will get around 18-20% vote share, so the high command wants Annamalai to lead the party and show if he can indeed pull off a miracle.Meanwhile, we are also told that Annamalai has done a benchmark survey in Pollachi and Coimbatore constituencies. The survey said that he would get 14% of the votes in Pollachi and 18% in Coimbatore. So, if the party decides he cannot sit out this election, he is likely to choose Coimbatore as his seat.When Modi came to Tamil Nadu on February 27, the party wanted alliance leaders to be present on the stage with him. AIADMK chief Edappadi Palaniswami was out of the picture, but the BJP did try to convince PMK, DMDK, Puthiya Tamilagam, O Panneerselvam, and TTV Dhinakaran to be present. One major issue which remains unsolved is that the BJP wants some of these allies, especially OPS and TTV Dhinakaran, to contest under the lotus symbol. But doing that would be a politically foolish move for both OPS and TTV who have been staking claim to the AIADMK. Some of the allies also want an assurance from the BJP national leadership that if they join the NDA, they will be allotted a Rajya Sabha seat. An assurance from the state leadership won’t cut it, the allies have said.The deadline for finishing seat sharing talks is set for March 4, the day Modi returns to Tamil Nadu. Union Minister Murugan is leading the talks for the BJP.The Coimbatore problem for DMKWhile the BJP is struggling to convince people to stand for elections, the DMK has a problem of plenty – too many aspirants for the same seat. Actor Kamal Haasan wants to try his luck once more from Coimbatore while the CPI(M) which won the seat last time has also demanded it. But there’s more. If Annamalai decides to contest from Coimbatore, the DMK wants the seat for itself. The DMK wants a direct fight with Annamalai and ensure an embarrassing defeat for him.We are told that DMK leaders from the western zone have insisted to MK Stalin that the seat should not be allotted to any ally till the BJP announces its candidate. These leaders believe that Annamalai is faking disinterest in an attempt to mislead them and to ensure that the DMK alliance puts up a weaker candidate. There are also talks of the DMK contemplating a Rajya Sabha seat for Kamal Haasan if he doesn’t contest from Coimbatore. Fashionable BJPFirst it was newsrooms that the BJP coveted, then YouTube influencers were used to plug the government and BJP politicians, now it’s the turn of fashion influencers. A source confirmed that the BJP held a meeting with fashion influencers in Delhi a few months ago and asked them to promote the Prime Minister, Indian nationalism, and the government’s schemes. This is why, the source adds, the husband of a fashion influencer, who is an influencer himself, went on a rant against Dhruv Rathee the other day. This tactic was also adopted by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi in Telangana during the recent Assembly elections, when they made around 150 influencers, including travel vloggers, mommy vloggers, and many others, praise the government and KCR indirectly. The traitors in the BJPWhile Congress MLAs in Himachal Pradesh cross-voted for the BJP in the Rajya Sabha elections, in Karnataka it was the other way around. Two BJP MLAs, ST Somashekar Gowda (Yeshwanthpur MLA) and Shivaram Hebbar (Yellapur), cross-voted. Though both these leaders left the Congress in 2019 and joined the BJP, they are looking to do a ghar wapsi now. Though the two want to contest in bye-polls, Congress sources say they are more interested in fielding them in Lok Sabha seats.With Sadananda Gowda deciding not to contest from Bangalore North, the Congress stands a chance to win there but does not have a good face. The party is contemplating fielding Somashekar from the seat while Shivaram Hebbar is being considered for Uttara Kannada. Another BJP veteran, Anantkumar Hegde, has said that he may not be contesting this time owing to poor health, so the field remains open for the Congress..Zero HourA political story of public importance.An Amazing ‘Zoo Story’.The 'world's largest private zoo' in Jamnagar, Gujarat, the venue of Reliance scion Anant Ambani’s pre-wedding celebrations, has come up under the shadow of a series of legal challenges, with allegations of illegal transfer of elephants from different parts of India, as well as scrutiny of India’s wildlife authorities..PowermovesTop 5 political storiesBehind Suresh Gopi's bid to win Thrissur for BJP, philanthropy and realpolitik‘Are we beggars?’ Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah slams Union govt on fund allocationAndhra Pradesh: Pawan Kalyan taunts Jagan for obsession with his marriagesEx-HC judge pays Rs 2.5 cr to men claiming RSS ties to buy electoral bonds, gets dupedPM Modi lauds MGR and Jayalalithaa, signals patch-up of AIADMK-BJP