Having brought down the AIADMK’s winning margin to 8,025 votes in the 2016 poll from 69,260 in the 2011 election, the DMK would be hoping to capture Kavundampalayam assembly constituency from the ruling party this year.
For its part, the AIADMK has replaced sitting MLA V C Arukutty with a new candidate - P R G Arunkumar - to continue its winning streak from the segment. While Arukutty had brought the party victory in the past two consecutive outings from the seat, the narrow win last time seemed to have cast doubt on the party about his ability to pull off another victory.
The DMK has, meanwhile, put its full faith on Payya Gounder alias R Krishnan, who had given the AIADMK a close fight in the previous election. The party seems to think that if he could dent the ruling party’s vote share by a huge margin in the very first outing, he could pull off a sure victory in the second (outing).
Given the current circumstances, the alliance with the BJP is likely to do a lot of good to the AIADMK, since the saffron party had improved its vote share in 2016 to 22,444 from just 6,175 in 2011. Every single vote would be valuable for both the Dravidian outfits this time, as they gear up for the big fight.
It was only in 2011 that Kavundampalayam was segregated from Thondamuthur constituency and made a separate assembly segment. And this is just the third battle for the segment. Will the AIADMK be third time lucky is the question doing rounds now.
The DMK can’t take Arunkumar lightly. He had proved his mettle in the 2016 election by winning from Coimbatore North assembly constituency. His stint as Periyanaickenpalayam town panchayat chairman from 1996-2016 had made him popular among the people there. He belongs to Naidu community, which has a major presence in the segment.
While the DMK candidate also belongs to one of the dominant communities - gounder – in the constituency, the deciding factor would be the votes from city corporation areas. A real estate player, Payya Gounder alias R Krishnan was also Kalapatti town panchayat president for almost 10 years from 2006 to 2016 and wields a considerable influence in the locality.
The AIADMK is dominant in areas such as Periyanaickenpalayam, Idikarai, Narasimmanaickenpalayam, Kurumbapalayam, Ashokapuram, Somayampalayam, Kavundampalayam and Thadagam, while the DMK has huge support base at Kalapatti, Saravanampatti, Vilankurichi and Kovilpalayam areas. Earlier, the ruling party was strong in Kondayampalayam village, where the DMK has now penetrated to a large extent.
M Senthilkumar, a private company staff, said, “We cannot predict the winner. Both the candidates are popular. A portion of city corporation falls in the constituency and the voters there will play a crucial role.”