 The party was allocated two seats to contest under the terms of agreement, from which Subbarayan was selected to fight Coimbatore.The seat, whose economy was largely based on a textile industry that was contracting due to recession, had been won in 1998 and 1999 by C. P. Radhakrishnan of the Bharatiya Janata Party.Aside from issues relating to unemployment, a major local issue in the 2004 campaign was the situation regarding drought and water supplies.