For the first time in two decades, the BJP's voice will be heard in the Tamil Nadu Assembly with four party candidates romping home in the just-concluded elections. Familiarity of the candidates in their constituencies, and the alliance with AIADMK, has helped the BJP open its account for the first time since 2001, when it had won the same number of seats as part of the DMK combine.
M R Gandhi (Nagercoil), Nainar Nagendran (Tirunelveli), C Saraswathi (Modakurichi), and Mahila Morcha chief Vanathi Srinivasan (Coimbatore South) are the four out of 20 candidates from the BJP who emerged victorious. Nagendran, who is a former AIADMK minister, and Gandhi, who has had his grooming in the RSS, are popular in their respective constituencies, while Srinivasan is quite familiar in Coimbatore.
Clinching four seats, though in an alliance with AIADMK, is sort of an achievement in a high-octane election campaign in which BJP was the prime target of the DMK-Congress combine.
Though state party chief L Murugan, senior leader H Raja, and star candidate K Annamalai lost the elections, the BJP is happy that it has won an election after two long decades. The party, which is making a concerted effort to make inroads into Tamil Nadu, will now hope to create a base for itself on the ground, as the Opposition campaign that BJP cannot win seats, has failed -- at least for now.
In the run-up to the polls, BJP had made headlines as it attempted Hindu consolidation by undertaking 'Vel Yatra' to “unmask” people behind a YouTube channel that made derogatory remarks on Kandha Shasti Kavasam, a popular devotional hymn sung in praise of Lord Murugan. The yatra was a failure, but 'Vetrivel Veeravel' continued to be the catch phrase of the BJP, with even Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising the slogan in his public meetings.
“The alliance seems to have worked well for the BJP, though the popular opinion was that the party will not open its account. That has now been proved and BJP should understand that the success has not come due its Vel Yatra or religious polarisation. A combination of local factors and alliance with AIADMK has worked for the party,” political commentator Maalan Narayanan told DH.
He also said the BJP should formalise a different strategy for non-Hindi speaking states for the simple reason that all have distinct cultural and linguistic identities. “When BJP talks of one nation-one language, people here get insecure. Their religious politics will not have any takers here,” Maalan said.
Agreeing with Maalan, senior journalist R Bhagwan Singh said the BJP has to completely re-engineer its strategy in Tamil Nadu as they cannot play the Hindu consolidation card in the state. “Only inclusivity will work in Tamil Nadu. The BJP should identify local leaders and nurture them so that they don't have to import leaders to campaign even for a local body election like they did in Telangana. More than everything, the BJP should drop Hindi. Otherwise, they will play straight into the trap laid by political opponents,” Singh added.