PM Modi holds first ever road show in Coimbatore

Chennai: With the BJP investing much in the state, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday held his first road show in Tamil Nadu in Coimbatore and paid tributes to victims of the 1998 serial blasts that shook the industrial city, killing 58 people.

Modi, who was accompanied by Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai and Union Minister of State L Murugan, held the road show for a distance of 2.5 km with people lining up on both sides of the road and chanting his name and slogans.

“Tamil Nadu is going to surprise everyone with the results. Our Party is emerging as a very strong force across the state. The people are in no mood to support the DMK any longer,” Modi wrote on X.

Atop an open jeep, Modi waved at people and exchanged pleasantries with them. This is the first time that the BJP has held a road show of the Prime Minister in Tamil Nadu, where the party is hoping to hit the two digit figure in terms of vote share this election.

The road show also comes close on the heels of the DMK specifically seeking the seat from its ally CPI(M) to prove its strength in Coimbatore. It will be an intense three cornered fight between the DMK, AIADMK, and BJP, which lost the seat in 2014 by a margin of less than 50,000 votes.

Modi concluded his road show by paying floral tributes to the victims of the 1998 serial bombings.

Coimbatore, a communally-sensitive city which had in the past witnessed clashes between Hindus and Muslims, is one of the constituencies where the BJP believes it has a chance to win this Lok Sabha elections.

The PM’s roadshow comes amid speculation that the BJP will field its state unit chief K Annamalai from Coimbatore.

Though the city hasn’t witnessed any terror incident after 1998, in 2022, on the eve of Deepavali, Coimbatore escaped from a “terror attack” after 29-year-old Jameesha Mubin was killed when one of the LPG cylinders in his Maruti 800 exploded just yards away from the famous Kottai Eswaran Temple. Police suspect that Mubin stopped the car after seeing police on duty near the temple and the vehicle exploded minutes later.