Dr. Nagesh Kumar, BJP ( Photo credit: x.com/DrNageshKumar )
The battle for the Thally assembly constituency, one of the last bastions of the Left in the state, is heating up with CPI’s Ramachandran seeking reelection from the segment.While BJP candidate Dr Nagesh Kumar rakes up the murder of CPI(ML) district secretary Baskar in 2013 to corner Ramachandran, TVK’s G Suresh banks on first-timers and young voters.Ramachandran was among those arraigned in the Baskar murder case. In Jan 2026, a Krishnagiri court acquitted him and 11 others, giving him legal relief.Beginning as a CPI organizer, Ramachandran built his reputation in the tribal belts of Denkanikottai and Anchetty.In 2021, he secured more than 62% of the vote share, defeating BJP’s Dr Nagesh Kumar by more than 56,000 votes.Ramachandran travels to villages without entourage, listens to the grievances of the villagers, and fights for subsidies and irrigation projects. “He comes when the borewells fail, not just when the votes are needed,” said K Madhavappa, a farmer in Anchetty.
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However, the Baskar murder case has become fodder for his opponents. “Acquittal is not innocence,” BJP’s Dr Nagesh Kumar said adding, “Thally deserves a leader without blood on his hands.” TVK’s G Suresh has gone further, distributing pamphlets with the slogan: “Do you want jobs or cases?”—a direct attempt to sway first-time voters.At the booth level, the arithmetic is telling. Ramachandran has an edge in rural booths such as Denkanikottai and Anchetty, considered CPI’s fortress comprising many dalit and tribal voters. BJP strategists are concentrating on semi-urban booths near Hosur by mobilizing gounder and lingayat voters, promising industrial growth and central welfare schemes. “We want industries, not slogans,” said a shopkeeper in Thally town.TVK’s strategy is to target booths around Thally town and educational clusters, where there is a chunk of young voters by promising skill centres and job fairs. They are using social media to amplify their messages.“We cannot keep choosing between ideology and neglect. Thally deserves modernity,” G Suresh said, hoping to cut into both CPI and BJP bases. While TVK lacks booth agents, it’s appeal to first-time voters could prove disruptive.Ramachandran’s counterstrategy is to frame the murder case as political vendetta, reminding voters that the judiciary acquitted him.“They tried to silence me with false cases, but I am here, acquitted, and still with you,” he said. For many rural voters, this narrative resonates. “We don’t care about old cases; we care about water,” said S Muthusamy, a dalit farmer.The contest in Thally is thus layered: booth-level arithmetic, generational divides, and the lingering shadow of a murder case
