In the early hours of June 14, 2023, Enforcement Directorate arrested Tamil Nadu electricity minister V Senthilbalaji in a money laundering case, a fallout of a cash-for-jobs scam during an earlier tenure as an ADMK minister.
As he lost his ministerial berth, underwent heart treatment, and spent more than a year in jail, there were many who felt it was time to write his political obituary.As the state heads to the hustings again to elect a govt, Senthilbalaji is still not out of legal tangles. But he’s the man that chief minister M K Stalin has turned to for reviving DMK’s fortunes in western Tamil Nadu. Having moved from Karur in central TN to Coimbatore South, the 50-year-old is back in action — as candidate, strategist, and DMK’s hope of wresting western Tamil Nadu.
Senthilbalaji’s brief is not just to win his seat, but to deliver the region for the alliance led by his party.
Proven tactician
Senthilbalaji says Coimbatore is his second home; he hails from the gounder community that is a dominant bloc in this part of Tamil Nadu. But caste is only one part of the calculation — his organisational skills and tactical nous matter just as much. Stalin had put him in charge of Coimbatore district soon after the 2021 elections.
It was then considered a bastion of ADMK leader SP Velumani, another gounder. Senthilbalaji’s first decision was to remove, or sideline, DMK functionaries who he thought were either inactive or colluding with ADMK.There were protests when Senthilbalaji brought hundreds of his supporters from Karur to Coimbatore for the 2022 local body elections. The DMK alliance won 96 of the 100 wards in the city corporation and 31 of the 33 town panchayats in the district.
That’s the acumen Stalin is banking on now.Senthilbalaji entered electoral politics in 2006, winning as an ADMK candidate. After J Jayalalithaa’s death, he joined DMK in 2018 and was fielded in Aravakurichi near Karur in a 2019 byelection. In 2021, he moved to Karur; 2026 is the first time he has shifted out of his home turf.Writer J Balasubramanian explains that DMK had been lacking a prominent leader in Coimbatore region after former minister Pongalur N Palaniswami.
“In 2021, DMK lost all 10 assembly seats in Coimbatore district. That would’ve set alarm bells ringing for Stalin,” he says. Of the 57 assembly seats in the eight districts in the western region, the party won just 16.In Karur, Senthilbalaji had proved a point when DMK appeared to have weakened following the retirement of local strongman KC Pallanishamy and the death in 2009 of former district secretary Vasuki Murugesan.
In the 2016 assembly elections, DMK won just one of the four seats in Karur district. After Senthilbalaji joined, the party won all four in 2021. “Senthilbalaji has a track record of delivering what his leader wants,” says a DMK functionary.
Uphill task
Once a stronghold of left parties and Congress, the western belt turned towards ADMK under MGR. He enjoyed a big following among OBCs and dalit arunthathiyars — groups that ADMK still banks on.
Despite DMK chief M Karunanidhi’s outreach to gounders — he reclassified them as backward class — the community stayed largely with ADMK.DMK, however, managed to gain votes of aruthathiyars because of the 3% internal reservation. MGR’s successor Jayalalithaa carried forward the legacy, which has been nurtured further by present ADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, who is also a gounder.So, for Senthilbalaji, Coimbatore South may not be a cakewalk.
In 2021, BJP’s Vanathi Srinivasan managed to squeeze out a victory here by 1,728 votes against filmstar and MNM founder Kamal Haasan. Congress, a DMK ally, was nowhere near the top. This time, Senthilbalaji faces ADMK’s Amman Arjunan, with Vanathi having moved to Coimbatore North. Senthilbalaji’s first visit during the campaign was to the Muslimdominated Kottaimedu neighbourhood.
Arjunan says the minorities would not fall for Senthilbalaji’s tactics.
“They’ve always supported us,” he says.But Senthilbalaji is a sharp organiser. He has made 15 men from Karur file nomination papers as Independents in Coimbatore South. “Each candidate is allowed two representatives in a polling booth. This means 30 additional booth agents for Senthilbalaji,” says Arjunan.DMK youth wing leader Pynthamizh Pari explains the maverick ways of Senthilbalaji. “Our booth committees usually have 10 to 12 members. But in Coimbatore, each has 25 members, and every member should get 50 votes. Senthilbalaji’s men — some call them the ‘Karur gang’ — accompany local party workers to households and gather feedback. They work overtime. They know this election could decide their leader’s future, and DMK’s fortunes in western Tamil Nadu.
