New Delhi, Delhi, India

Ever since the anti-Sterlite protest in which 14 civilians were gunned down by police for demanding the closure of the Copper plant, Thoothukudi is a mare's nest.

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After the constituency was carved out following delimitation during 2009 Lok Sabha election, the DMK and AIADMK have won once in 2009 and 2014 respectively. The AIADMK had won with a margin of 1.24 lakh votes in the 2014 general election.  

Now DMK has fielded Kanimozhi from the constituency. Kanimozhi is the daughter of the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu Karunanidhi and is a Rajya Sabha member since 2007 and contesting Lok Sabha polls for the first time.

While BJP is betting on Tamil Nadu BJP chief Thamizhisai Soundarajan, whose father Kumari Ananthan, a Congress veteran, was president of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee and MP.  The BJP will have to surmount a number of challenges, the foremost of them being an anti-incumbent sentiment. The death of 14 persons during the anti-Sterlite protest is firmly etched on people's memory here. 

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Given the circumstances, the BJP could be taking its chances by fielding the party's state president in the constituency.  

Unlike the rest of India, Modi wave was conspicuously absent in Tamil Nadu in 2014. Things have not improved much for the BJP since. From the Thoothukudi killings to Gaja cyclone and Cauvery issue, the general mood of the state is seemingly against the Modi-led BJP regime at the Centre which is likely to have a bearing on the Lok Sabha polls.  

But Soundarajan seems to be braving all the odds. Campaigning on the plank of development and anti-corruption, Thamizhisai has so far steered clear of anti-Sterlite protest. 

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On the other hand, Kanimozhi has been raising the Sterlite issue in almost all her campaigns. 

It is to Kanimozhi’s advantage that the party and alliance partners have been aggressively campaigning, unlike in the AIADMK-BJP camp, where the campaigning is ostensibly lacklustre. Kanimozhi herself has attended at least 60-gram sabha meetings before elections were announced, preparing a solid ground for her candidature. She has also announced a slew of development projects in her manifesto for the constituency recently.

Thamizhisai, on the other hand, hopes the alliance arithmetic might just work in her favour.