Coimbatore: Former minister and DMK candidate for Coimbatore South assembly constituency V Senthilbalaji began his election campaign on Tuesday and expressed hope that his party-led Secular Progessive Alliance (SEP) would wrest all the 10 seats in Coimbatore from the AIADMK-led NDA alliance this time.After meeting members of the Jain community at Town Hall in the city on Tuesday, Senthilbalaji said, “Chief minister M K Stalin trusted me and sent me to Coimbatore. We will explain to the voters about the state govt’s welfare schemes. The people of Coimbatore South constituency trust the DMK govt and will vote for it again.” Responding to AIADMK candidate Amman K Arjunan’s claim that he would win by a margin of over 50,000 votes, Senthilbalaji said his party too was working with a clear target and he would campaign in all 10 assembly constituencies in Coimbatore. Referring to the 2021 assembly election, he said AIADMK had won several constituencies by narrow margins, though it had secured a 40,000-vote lead in Thondamuthur. He added that the DMK would work to reverse that result and emerge victorious. On criticism over his decision to contest from Coimbatore instead of Karur, he said both constituencies were equally important to him. He said the DMK govt brought several major projects to Coimbatore, including a jewellery park for goldsmiths, GD Naidu flyover, allocation of land for the Coimbatore airport expansion, and the Periyar Arivulagam Library. He said that under chief minister’s leadership, infrastructure works worth 8,200 crore had been carried out in the last five years, covering roads, stormwater drains, streetlights and underground drainage. Of this, 700 crore was spent specifically on relaying damaged roads and laying new roads in the district.
