Chennai: For the first time in its electoral history, Tamil Nadu witnessed the BJP putting up an aggressive fight in the present Lok Sabha elections by going for the jugular of the ruling DMK and trying to win over the people of the State by bringing in all the top leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for campaign.
While the BJP had been fighting elections in the State since its inception, it had managed to win a seat in Lok Sabha on its own only once when Pon Radhakrishnan won the 2014 polls from his Kanyakumari constituency. All the other electoral victories of the BJP had come only in league with one of the Dravidian majors.
So, it was a surprise that the party had been hitherto content with the ‘also ran’ tag by giving the major slice of the triumphs in both Assembly and Parliamentary elections to its domineering allies, wanting to lead an alliance in the State. Though it faced the problem of finding allies, the PMK finally latched onto it, enabling it to head the ‘third alliance’ in the State.
But more than that, what distinguished its campaign this time was the scathing direct attack on the State’s ruling party, the DMK, which has found a major role to play in the national INDIA coalition that is projecting itself as the potential alternative to the BJP at the all-India level.
By engaging the DMK in a direct fight, the BJP also raked up a wide range of issues that had a distinct Tamil sentimental flavour. For example by bringing out facts from old records to prove that the late M Karunanidhi was privy to the decision of the Congress government in the handing over of the Katchatheevu islet to Sri Lanka way back in 1974, it tried to portray the DMK as a party that had betrayed the interests of Tamil people.
The narrative that it tried to set was that one of the present day problems of fishermen from Tamil Nadu, the regular arrests on the high seas by the Sri Lankan Navy that also seized their fishing boats, was all because of the DMK government’s apathy. It was also driven home by the Prime Minister, who made about 10 visits to the State just ahead of the April 19 election.
It was also the first time that a Prime Minister held roadshows in the State to whip up support for the BJP that had no base in most parts of the State and tried to impress upon the people through his quintessential Tamil attire and praise of Tamil language and cuisine. That his practice of delivering speeches in Hindi might not go well with the people of the State who are used to listening to past Prime Ministers speaking in English when they visit the State was never a deterrent to the BJP’s bid to win at least a couple of seats.
Even other BJP leaders took a strident stand against the DMK’s campaign for State Rights that included exemption for the State from NEET. State President K Annamalai, a candidate from Coimbatore constituency, openly supported NEET even at the height of the campaign.
To put it otherwise, the BJP, without compromising on its principles, made an effective attempt to capture the imagination of the Tamil people by offering it as an alternative to the DMK. Whether the BJP succeeds in the game plan or not, it fought the good fight, finishing the race.
