BJP's ambitions for Tamil Nadu on test tomorrow

April 18, 2024 12:33

Narendra Modi holds a roadshow with party chief K Annamalai and South Chennai candidate Tamilisai Soundararajan

The BJP's ambition to emerge as a force challenging Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu and determination to retain its strongholds across the country will be put to a stern test on Friday when the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections kick off.

If a lot is at stake for the ruling party in the 102 constituencies going to the polls as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks a stronger majority, the challenge is even bigger for the opposition INDIA bloc, whose several constituents are in a battle of survival and hope for a rebound after facing reverses in the 2014 and 2019 elections.

Among the 21 states and Union Territories where these seats are spread, Tamil Nadu has emerged as a riveting battleground thanks to the BJP's high-octane push to open up its traditionally bipolar polity amid the main opposition AIADMK's continued struggle since J Jayalalithaa's death. Elections in all the 39 seats in the state, where the BJP drew a blank in 2019, will be held on Friday.

Modi has led the saffron charge, frequenting the state for long before the polls were announced and holding several rallies and road shows since then.

The BJP, which has allied with a few smaller parties, has sought to upend the state's conventional politics, which has so far been indifferent to Hindutva politics, by taking the ruling DMK head-on for its alleged insult of Sanatan Dharma besides involvement in corruption.

The prime minister has visited many temples in the run-up to the elections, especially in the days ahead of the Ram temple consecration ceremony in January. He has deftly mixed this with his championing of Tamil culture and pride to counter the Dravidian criticism of the BJP as a party pushing north Indian values in the state.

Chief Minister M K Stalin has dismissed all the buzz around the BJP as propaganda, while terming the fight against the national party as a battle for democracy's survival in the country.

Political strategist Prashant Kishor has, however, predicted a big rise in the BJP's vote share in the state, while the party's state president K Annamalai, who quit the IPS to join politics and has energised its campaign, has claimed that its seats will be in double digits.

It is also one state where the BJP has invested heavily in its regional leadership represented by Annamalai, who is himself contesting from Coimbatore. The poll outcome in the state on June 4, when the nationwide counting of all seats will be done, will have wide repercussions.

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