TN: Virudhunagar poised for fierce fight as incumbent Tagore pitted against 'stars'

Virudhunagar (Tamil Nadu) [India], April 18 : As all 39 seats in Tamil Nadu head into polls on April 19 for the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the contest in Virudhunagar constituency is between incumbent Congress MP B Manickam Tagore who is pitted against two high profile candidates-actor and producer Radikaa Sarathkumar of the BJP; and V Vijayaprabhakaran of the DMDK, who is the son of late actor Vijayakant.
The constituency known as the birthplace of K Kamraj, one of the tallest leaders in Tamil Nadu politics lies adjacent to Madurai and is home to many cracker manufacturing units, matchbox and handloom units as well as offset printing presses.
Though Tagore won twice from the constituency, Radikaa and Vijayaprabhakaran have conducted an intense campaign to wrest the seat from him.
Another candidate who is trying his luck here is S Kaushik of the NTK.
The BJP cadre believe that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's campaign, the attraction among women voters towards Radikaa will help her to win the election. On the other hand, Vijayaprabhakaran is banking on the popularity of his late father among the voters, especially those in the two Assembly segments in Madurai district where the actor was born.
The outcomes of elections in this constituency have been predominantly determined by the two Assembly segments in Madurai district namely Tirumangalam and Tirupparankundram.
Besides these two, other Assembly segments comprising the Virudhunagar constituency are Virudhunagar, Sivakasi, Sattur and Aruppukottai (in Virudhunagar district).
Manickam Tagore termed the contest as a fight to save democracy.
"This election is very important to save democracy. We all know that India's political institutions are under attack. The opposition chief minister was arrested. The accounts of opposition parties have been frozen... We all know that Modi and Amit Shah are determined to murder democratic principles. This election will determine whether India will remain a democratic country and this election will be against Modi's misrule...The government is working for Adani and they want to distribute all of India's wealth to Adani," Manickam Tagore told ANI earlier.
Radikaa told ANI that she is getting good response from the voters of the constituency.
"The voters are very clear this is parliamentary election. They know that they want a strong government. They want somebody who can get their work done," she said.
Considering the constituency is the home of many cracker manufacturing units, Radikaa said that if she wins she will make sure that no one will lose life in the accidents in the fire cracker units. "If we win the election, we will make sure that there are no causalities, at least that much we can do. No one should lose their life," she said.
Late matinee idol and DMDK founder, Vijayakanth's son, V Vijaya Prabhakaran, who is set to make his electoral debut from Tamil Nadu's Virudhnagar Lok Sabha constituency told ANI earlier that he looks forward to contesting the upcoming general elections and was confident of victory.
Since the delimitation of the Constituency, Manickam Tagore won from here in the general elections of 2009 and 2019. In 2014 the late AIADMK candidate T Radhakrishnan registered victory in the constituency.
Tagore won the 2019 general elections with a victory margin of 1,54,554 votes, securing 4,70,883 votes. He defeated Alagarsamy of the DMDK, who got 3,16,329 votes.
Tagore, a candidate of the INDIA bloc, which is led in Tamil Nadu by the DMK, has an advantage of his community, Mukkulathor, voters of which constituted the majority.
The DMK and its allies are in power in four assembly segments in Virudhunagar district, which has over 8.9 lakh voters, and AIADMK, which is an ally of DMDK, enjoys the power in the other two assembly segments in Madurai district. It has a total voter count of over 6 lakh.
As per the seat sharing agreement, AIADMK will contest on 32 seats, DMDK on five seats, and Puthiya Tamilagam (PT) and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) will contest on one seat each.
In the 2019 general elections, the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance, comprising the Congress, VCK, MDMK, CPI, CPI(M), IUML, MMK, KMDK, TVK, and AIFB, registered a landslide victory, winning 38 of the 39 seats in the state.