Chennai: The New Year resolutions of every political party in the State this time are the same: Improve their prospects in the Lok Sabha elections that they would be facing in the first half of the year. And for that, each of the party has its own game plan with almost all of them soon holding conferences in the New Year more as a show of strength and to firm up their support base.
The major parties, the DMK, the AIADMK, and the BJP, are also out to ensure that their booth committees, the backbone of any party in the elections, are strengthened. Though the DMK and AIADMK traditionally have built robust booth committees all over the State and have been nurturing them for a long time with their grassroots infrastructure, the BJP is also making an earnest bid to have its own committees.
Ahead of the elections, however, the ruling DMK plans to organize its second Youth Wing conference in Salem and is keen on scheduling it by the end of January or the beginning of February. The event had been put off twice, both times due to inclement weather conditions, and has now turned out to be the last chance for the party to prove its mobilization capabilities ahead of launching the real campaign.
Massive arrangements were made for several months for the conduct of the show that was touted by many as an occasion to anoint the Youth Wing secretary and State Minister for Youth Affairs Udhayanidhi Stalin for a bigger role in the government on December 17 but Cyclone Michang played spoilsport, forcing the first postponement.
Then when it was rescheduled to be held on December 24, heavy floods visited the southern districts of Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, and Kanyakumari a week ahead of that and the DMK put off its ambitious show for a later date. Now it is keen on holding it earlier before the first week of February as the notification for the elections is expected to come out by March end or early April.
The same pressure is also on the AIADMK, which has been making efforts to lure its old minority vote bank after breaking up with the BJP in September last year, to conduct a meeting with Muslim organisations. The party managed to hold two meetings with Christian groups in 2023, the last one being a Christmas get-together that was turned into a political forum by its general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami.
As far as the BJP is concerned, it had already planned to bring in Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the valedictory of the ‘yatra’ that has been going on for some time in the State with long gaps. The valedictory has been planned to be held in Chennai, where the yatra that was flagged off at Rameswaram by Union Home Minister Amit Shah will conclude.
It is said the message of the national BJP to its leaders has been to ‘go South’ and build the party by contesting in the elections in a big way. So, the State unit had been putting pressure on the AIADMK, when it was in an alliance, to allocate some key seats for its leaders to contest.
Among those leaders who might contest from Tamil Nadu are Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Union Minister of State L Murugan. Now that the BJP need not seek the constituencies from its coalition leader in the State, the AIADMK, and is likely to spearhead its own alliance, many leaders are expected to contest even if they do not have a chance of winning.
But, as BJP sources said, Annamalai was not keen on contesting in 2024 and was eyeing the 2026 Assembly polls, which he is confident of winning. So, the meeting of Narendra Modi is seen as the beginning of its long extended campaign starting from 2024 and stretching up to the 2026 Assembly elections.
Given the BJP and its functionaries giving such importance to the Prime Minister’s meeting in Chennai, the party is also turning no stone unturned in making it a grand success by mobilizing a huge crowd and setting the tone for it campaign to paint both the DMK and Congress a corrupt party, projecting Modi as the only hope for India’s future.
The DMK’s campaign will be to tell the voters who should not come to power in New Delhi? So, it would also start the process from the Youth Wing conference and carry it on till the elections. The AIADMK, which wants to have an alliance with at least one national party – be it the Congress or the Communist parties – would canvas on the plank of protecting the State’s Rights.
It might go to town telling the voters that both the DMK and the BJP were not concerned about the State’s Rights and that the AIADMK alone would be able to uphold it. The VCK and the CPM, both now part of the DMK-led alliance, too, want to have events to establish themselves as political forces in their own right.
So the VCK conference that was planned ahead of Christmas at Trichy and postponed because of the floods in the southern districts, too, would be held in January. The CPI, which spearheaded an agitation of the State government trade unions – JACTO-GEO – last on December 28, is also keen on riding the popularity crest by taking up labour issues that most other parties have been ignoring of late.
