The ruling AIADMK is labouring hard to continue its winning streak in Kinathukkadavu constituency. While the DMK has won the constituency in 1967, 1971, 1989 and 1996, the AIADMK has won it eight times.
The AIADMK has fielded former minister S. Damodaran and the DMK Kurichi Prabhakaran.
The AIADMK candidate has won the seat consecutively in 2001, 2006 and 2011, while A. Shanmugam of the party won the seat in 2016. He defeated Kurichi Prabakharan by a slender margin of 1,332 votes.
Sandwiched between Coimbatore and Pollachi with a substantial number of villages and town panchayats, it is largely a rural constituency.
However, seven wards of the Coimbatore Corporation finds place in this constituency.
The profile of the constituency is such that it is largely an agrarian economy with equal number of industries right from the outskirts of the city.
The constituency has a sizeable population of Kongu Velala Gounders, Vokkaliga Gowders, backward communities and equal number of people from the listed communities in the form of farm labourers.
Farmers cultivating tomato, brinjal, ladies finger, groundnut and maize have been demanding cold storage facility. Inadequate rail infrastructure and lack of frequent train services continue to be a major issue on the Coimbatore – Pollachi section, which runs through Kinathukkadavu constituency.
Campaign by political parties echoes the decade-old demand for construction of more check dams across Manjapallam river, which originates near Madukkarai and runs up to Velandavazham in Kerala.
Infrastructure improvement in SIDCO industrial estate including drinking water and roads, construction of a flyover at the Eachanari junction, which is proving to be an accident prone spot, are the other demands.
Another issue that confronts the candidates is the unscientific waste disposal at the Vellalore compost yard, resulting in frequent fire. The public want bio mining method of waste management expedited and intensified to prevent groundwater contamination. The other issue is the dumping of bio medical and poultry waste from Kerala.
People want Podanur railway junction developed as a satellite station to decongest Coimbatore Railway Junction. They also demand a railway station at Chettipalayam.