Shahbaz Khan
Despite being in power in more than half the states of the country, BJP’s long-term dream is to gain a foothold in the southern states. In particular, the election strategy of BJP leaders including Prime Minister Modi is to defeat the DMK which is ideologically opposed to them.
Keeping this in mind, the BJP leadership has been developing the party by paying special attention to Tamil Nadu for the past few years. It is with this background that former state presidents like I. Ganesan, Tamilisai Soundararajan, C. P. Radhakrishnan, L. Murugan, Pon. Radhakrishnan, who were the faces of Tamil Nadu of the BJP, have given the opportunity to contest for governorship, ministerial posts and elections.
Meanwhile, Annamalai has been appointed as the BJP state president after the 2021 assembly polls. As this is the first Lok Sabha general election that the BJP will contest in Tamil Nadu under his leadership, his strategy and activities are being closely watched.
BJP’s electoral victories: In 1996, the BJP won the Padmanabhapuram constituency as a single candidate as far as the assembly elections are concerned. In the 2001 elections held following this, the DMK contested in an alliance and won 4 constituencies namely Karaikudi, Mayiladuthurai, Mylapore and Thali. But in the 2006 elections that followed, the party, which contested alone, could not win a single seat.
In the 2011 assembly polls, the Janata Party contested with smaller parties like the United Janata Dal and secured 2.55 percent of the votes. Similarly, in the last 2016 polls, it formed an alliance with some small parties and got only 2.86 percent of the votes.
In the 2021 assembly polls after Jayalalithaa’s demise, the BJP contested 20 constituencies in alliance with the AIADMK and won 4 constituencies. BJP got a total of 12.13 lakh votes. This is 2.62 percent of the total votes cast.
As far as the Lok Sabha polls are concerned, the BJP won 3 seats in 1998 polls in alliance with AIADMK and 4 seats in 1999 polls in alliance with DMK. In the last 2019 election, it could not win even a single seat. In the 2019 polls, the BJP’s vote percentage was 3.66 percent, contesting 5 seats in the AIADMK alliance.
Double Digit: But, in the last 5 years, BJP has built a structure in Tamil Nadu organizationally. DMK and AIADMK have integrated various celebrities from different political parties in their party. Vijayatharani, a Congress MLA from Vilavankot, is considered to be one of the most important recent arrivals of the BJP.
Although the BJP has planned to win more seats with the AIADMK in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, most of the AIADMK supporters and many of its leaders have openly opposed forming an alliance with the BJP, so it is competing with smaller parties including the BMC and TAMAKA.
Even though the BJP’s vote share in Tamil Nadu was in single digits in the last elections, the party leaders are confident that it will get double digit votes in this election. Prime Minister Modi’s visits to Tamil Nadu are meant to strengthen the confidence of the party.
Modi’s visits: In the first week of January last, Modi came to Tamil Nadu to participate in the graduation ceremony of Bharathidasan University, the inauguration of the second terminal of Trichy Airport, and on the 19th of the same month, he returned for a 3-day tour. Participated in Rameswaram temple worship events.
Later on February 27, Pratham, who came to Tamil Nadu on a 2-day tour, participated in the public meeting of BJP’s ‘En Man En Makalar’ walk held at Palladam. Darshan at Madurai Meenakshiyamman Temple, Kulasekaranpattinam Rocket Launch Ground Foundation Ceremony, Nellai public meetings.
Modi, who came back to Tamil Nadu on March 4, launched the Enulai project at the Kalpakkam thermal power station. Later he participated in a public meeting held in Chennai. Subsequently, he came back to Tamil Nadu on March 18 and 19. He participated in the vehicle rally held in Coimbatore and the public meetings held in Salem.
In this situation, Prime Minister Modi, who came to Tamil Nadu on April 9 (Tuesday) to speak in support of the candidates, after the alliance was finalized, the candidates were also announced, and the election campaign was intensifying, he came to Coimbatore for the third time in a span of 42 days on Wednesday to campaign.
Plan for 2026: After Kanyakumari, the party top believes that Coimbatore is the most influential seat for the BJP. Annamalai and L. Murugan are contesting in Coimbatore and Nilgiri constituencies here, so Modi is giving more importance to this region.
BJP may show more interest to win in Tamil Nadu in this Lok Sabha polls. But, more importantly, BJP, the single largest party, sees this poll as a platform before the assembly polls to test its vote percentage.
The vision of the party is to be an inevitable force in the 2026 Legislative Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu along with the two Dravidian powers. BJP leaders say that this is the reason why Prime Minister Modi is coming to Tamil Nadu again and again.
According to them, if Prime Minister Modi pays the price of the Lok Sabha polls to test his party’s strength in Tamil Nadu, it seems that his series of visits to Tamil Nadu will be an investment of time to prepare the field for the 2026 assembly polls, rather than to harvest votes for the BJP.