Chennai: It’s not just the DMK which is looking at the AIADMK supremo’s plight of being jailed by the special court in Bengaluru as a political opportunity. The saffron brigade of the state also views it as a chance to get into Tamil Nadu politics in a big way and win more than the one seat that it won in the recent Lok Sabha polls.
“The DMK is politically out because of family feuds. Now the AIADMK is legally out. The Lotus will bloom in Tamil Nadu,” summed up a senior BJP leader in Tamil Nadu. For the BJP which was fighting for a foothold in Tamil Nadu, the legal blow to the AIADMK supremo may have come at an opportune moment. With an eye on the 2016 Assembly elections, the BJP had plunged into an electoral battle against the AIADMK in the recent civic byelections.
“Only the BJP had the commitment to take on the mighty AIADMK which unleashed money power to win elections while the other Opposition parties just kept away,” the State BJP chief Tamilisai Soundarrajan told Deccan Chronicle. “The court verdict is not just a lesson to all political parties, but will ensure a level playing field as corrupt parties will not use their money power to buy votes as we saw in the recent local body byelections,” she explains.
The emerging political scenario in Tamil Nadu may be very complex, but the saffron party sees an unprecedented political opportunity on Dravidian turf, although it must see as a warning the fact that .corruption has never been the biggest of issues for the electorate and Jayalalithaa will continue to be a force in the state, in or out of jail.
“Both the DMK and the AIADMK are tainted by corruption. Only the BJP has the legitimacy to raise the corruption issue,” says Tamilisai Soundararajan. The 2016 Assembly elections will see the BJP and its allies taking on the twin might of the AIADMK and the DMK, say the saffron party functionaries. Though the DMK may like to gravitate towards the BJP, the saffron party is in no mood to indulge the Dravidian party. “We want to keep equidistance from both the AIADMK and DMK. Both the parties face corruption issues. So, where is the question of aligning with the DMK?” asks the State BJP president.
From staking out at Poes Garden desperately for an alliance with the AIADMK, the BJP indeed has travelled quite a political distance in the Dravidian land. However, the saffron party still has a long, bumpy road ahead. In the 2014 Parliamentary elections, the BJP-led alliance polled just 18.5 per cent of votes and the BJP alone managed just 5.5 per cent which is a far cry from the DMK—led DPA’s 26.8 per cent and the AIADMK’s phenomenal 44.3 per cent of vote share.
The BJP banks on the “Modi magic” for a huge saffron surge in Tamil Nadu.
“We have polled one-third of the votes in the recent civic elections. With Modi at the helm, the BJP will make further inroads,” asserts Tamilisai Soundarra-
jan.
