As he speaks about Modi's plan to interlink the rivers across the country and the Narmada canal project in Gujarat, it evokes an emotional response from the crowds. They open up about the lack of rains and dried up rivers in the region.
"We are familiar with Ganesamoorthy and are happy with the way he has served us. The concrete bus shelter was constructed from his MP fund. It is true that farmers have suffered heavy losses but this is because of the poor monsoons. If the interlinking of rivers is actually achieved, it will be a great relief to farmers," said Subramanian, a farmer.
The final phase of polling seems to be dominated by the Modi factor in Erode for all major political parties except the AIADMK whose candidate Selvakumara Chinnaiyan was summoned to Chennai by his party leader to attend a party function.
The Erode constituency seems to be heading for a direct face off between the NDA alliance nominee Ganesamoorthy and the AIADMK candidate Selvakumara Chinnaiyan. Ganesamoorthy's key campaign strategy is to hold as many public meetings across the constituency in the form of brief street corner chats and woo voters through the Modi factor. However, RN Kittusamy, district urban secretary of the AIADMK is confident that his party will make a clean sweep and the competition is only for the runner up slot between the MDMK and DMK, leaving Congress in the fourth position.
"The state government had approved three new colleges in Erode last year, one each in Kumarapalayam, Modakurichi and Kangeyam. These are Amma's gifts to the people to ensure high quality education," said Kittusamy at his campaign headquarters in Erode city.
Meanwhile, the Congress candidate P Gopi, who hails from Tirupur and is the district Congress chief there, will be contesting from Erode, after local party heavy weight EVKS Elangovan was allotted a ticket from Tirupur. Speaking near Muthur in Erode, Gopi said that his main focus would be to improve the welfare of the rural voters through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme. He assured voters that the daily wage would be hiked to Rs167 in the coming months. He also wants to make it clear to the voting public that the Congress is no longer associated with the DMK at the Center or at the state level following the 2G scam allegations against the party.
"We are also strongly campaigning against Narendra Modi and his communal agenda to win the support of the minority communities. Though national level congress leaders did not come here to campaign for our candidates, we are hopeful of getting substantial vote share especially from rural areas as we are a bit weak within city limits" said Gopi.
As per the latest estimate of the election commission of India there are 1097035 voters in Erode parliamentary constituency from six major assembly constituencies namely Kumarapalayam, Erode (East), Erode (West), Modakkurichi, Dharapuram and Kangayam as against 1739912 total voters in the district. As three main contenders are from the Gounder community a strong vote base in the area, their votes are expected to get splintered thereby making the remaining community vote banks including the minority community very crucial for the elections.
Though the AIADMK urban secretary painted a rosy picture about the power crisis across the state, the remaining candidates admitted that the power crisis had deeply affected the power loom sector which is the main employment generating sector in Erode. When Narendra Modi campaigned in Erode recently, he promised voters that if elected at the Center, he would implement measures to boost development in the textile industry and affiliated units in Erode.
The DMK has fielded one of the youngest candidate in the elections with 26-year-old H Pavithravalli hailing from a family with strong links with the party. The DMK has been campaigning against the AIADMK candidate, reminding people about the power crisis and accusing the state government of high jacking major projects proposed during the previous DMK regime in the state.
The Aam Aadmi Party of India has fielded KK Kumaraswamy an organic farmer from the constituency.
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