The BJP’s growth in Tamil Nadu has begun to worry the AIADMK

The BJP had emerged as the voice of the opposition thanks to Annamalai’s vigorous anti-DMK line. (Image source: Shutterstock)

In early March, local dailies and news channels in Tamil Nadu had only one major political development occupying the headlines – the influx of BJP functionaries into the AIADMK. The trigger was the sudden exit of Nirmal Kumar, head of the BJP’s IT Wing, from the party and being welcomed with great fanfare by AIADMK’s acting general secretary and former CM Edappadi K Palaniswami.

The AIADMK publicised it as a great political coup and the Tamil media, looking to pull down the BJP and its state chief K Annamalai, immediately declared that this was the beginning of the end of Annamalai’s leadership. The former IPS officer, however, dusted off the defections as inconsequential saying that this would give him a chance to appoint fresh faces as office bearers to the vacant slots.

Will BJP Go It Alone?

Even as this rumbling in the troubled alliance between the two NDA partners was dying down, came the real shocker from Annamalai. He told a closed door meeting of his party’s office bearers that if the high command insisted on an alliance with the AIADMK for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, he would rather quit his post than engage with the AIADMK on the number of seats and choice of seats.

His logic was that unless the party contested on its own, by forming its own alliance as in 2014 which got 14 per cent votes and two LS seats, the BJP will never be able to grow in the state. By constantly being at the mercy of a larger regional party it would only gradually weaken like the Congress has in the company of the DMK, he pointed out. Also when the 2024 election will be about endorsing Narendra Modi’s performance over the last ten years and renewing that mandate, the BJP should be in the forefront of the political narrative in Tamil Nadu, he reasoned.

AIADMK Missing Jayalalithaa

While the cadres and middle level functionaries agree with Annamalai’s argument, the state seniors are not that enthusiastic. Having been used to the politics of electoral alliance since 1998, when Jayalalithaa first joined hands with the BJP for the LS elections, senior leaders of the party are unsure if the BJP can make an impact on its own. In the past they have accepted fewer seats – many of which were unwinnable, to keep the alliance intact – which is something that Annamalai wants to break away from. Even if the BJP contested only a dozen seats, they should be strong winnable seats so that the party is able to send at least five MPs to the Lok Sabha – that has been his selling point.

Another reason given by Annamalai to break ties with the AIADMK was his desire to move Tamil Nadu away from the practice of bribing voters during elections. He particularly was peeved by even the AIADMK following the footsteps of the ruling DMK in handing out bribes in the form of cash and kind to get votes during the recent byelection to Erode(East) Assembly seat won by the Congress. “The BJP will never give money for votes and I want to impress upon the voters that we want to practice honest electoral politics. So being in alliance may put pressure on our candidates to follow the footsteps of our major partner (AIADMK),” he had told the party meeting.

On its part the AIADMK cleverly shifts the blame for any electoral defeat on to the BJP saying its presence turned away the minority votes. This is a vacuous excuse since the minorities in the state have always voted for the DMK-Congress alliance. So Annamalai does not want the BJP to be made a convenient scapegoat repeatedly by this big brother attitude of the AIADMK. Especially when the AIADMK, in the absence of a charismatic leader like Jayalalithaa, is slowly disintegrating due to the internal squabbles between Palaniswami (EPS) and O Panneerselvam (OPS).

Annamalai Overshadows EPS

Another worrying factor for the AIADMK has been that while it was immersed in its own internal power struggle, the BJP had emerged as the voice of the opposition thanks to Annamalai’s vigorous anti-DMK line. Palaniswami also views Annamalai as a challenge to his leadership from the powerful Kongu region of Western Tamil Nadu since both of them belong to the Kongu Vellalar community.

Also Annamalai is a more powerful orator than EPS, in both Tamil and English, and connects better with the youth and has impressed with his data-driven arguments on issues. Added to that he has the achievements of the Modi government to showcase whereas the AIADMK can at best only harp on memories of Jayalalithaa and MGR, which find little traction as much as the DMK reminiscing about Karunanidhi.

Come Tamil New Year’s day Annamalai has promised to release details of the alleged corruption and ill-gotten wealth of DMK ministers which would again cement his position as the face of the opposition. Once he is back from his assignment for the Karnataka elections Annamalai plans to undertake a padayatra across Tamil Nadu’s hinterland in an effort to improve the reach of the BJP and publicise the Modi’s government’s achievements.

If he is able to show a visible connect with the masses at the grass root level, the BJP’s central leadership too might be tempted to dump the AIADMK and strike out on its own.

GC Shekhar is a senior journalist. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.