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Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a strong pitch for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Tamil Nadu, a state where no national party has governed (except as a junior partner of the alliance) since the late 1960s, by targetting the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam over governance and dynastic politics even as he praised two of the tallest leaders of the All India Anna Dravida Kazhagam in what some analysts saw as an attempt to broaden his party’s base.
Modi lauded AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran and compared his political legacy to that of the ruling DMK, and said that the late Dravidian leader did not come from “dynasty”. Speaking in Tiruppur’s Palladum he also praised late chief minister and former AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa as the only leader who took MGR’s “ideals forward.”
Modi however did not mention either the AIADMK or its current president Edapaddi Palaniswami; once an ally of the BJP, the party went its separate way in September 2022 citing issues with the BJP’s Tamil Nadu president K Annamalai. The DMK has been an ally of the Congress since 2004.
The Prime Minister’s visit also marked the culmination of Annamalai’s six month padyatra “En Mann En Makkal’ (my soil, my people). With crucial Lok Sabha elections on the horizon and the BJP attempting to break new ground, Modi said that it was clear that the opposition coalition was set to lose, and that they were “trying to loot Tamil Nadu.” “We have to close their looting business. We have created a lock to close that through this yatra…The yatra is taking Tamil Nadu on a different path. The people of Tamil Nadu are ready to put a full stop to corruption,” Modi said.
Tiruppur in western Tamil Nadu has remained a fortress for the AIADMK. In the 2016 assembly elections, the AIADMK won 45 of the 57 seats forming the state government and in 2021 assembly elections, it won 33 seats while the DMK swept to power. With several businesses and industries located in the Kongu region in western Tamil Nadu, senior BJP leaders said that it is here that the party is looking to make inroads. “This region represents the spirit of enterprise. The MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) here help us in being the fastest growing economy,” Modi said.
In 2019, BJP contested on five seats but could not open its account, managing to garner 3.66% vote share, despite the AIADMK being part of the NDA in Tamil Nadu. In 2014, the BJP contested nine Tamil Nadu seats and managed to bag one, with a vote share of 5.47%, even as it was not in alliance with the AIADMK.
Modi said that while the BJP has never ruled Tamil Nadu, the state has “always been in the BJP’s heart.” Modi reminded the audience of thousands at his meeting that he had recited Tamil poetry in international platforms , installed the sengol (sceptre) from the state in the new parliament building; and helped create the Kasdhi-Tamil Sangamam a cultural exchange programme hosted in the state of Uttar Pradesh to showcase the best of Tamil culture. “My relationship with Tamil Nadu is not just political or of governance but also a relationship of the heart…Those who looted Tamil Nadu are afraid that the BJP is growing here so they are spreading false narratives among people and lying. Their corruption and mistakes are emerging. People are getting more confident about the BJP,” Modi said.
Pitching for a third straight term in government, he said that along with India, the southern state will also move on the path of progress. “The INDIA bloc in Tamil Nadu will never let the state develop,” he said.
“The praise of MGR and Jayalalithaa was clearly targeted more at the AIADMK voter than the AIADMK leadership,” said political analyst Sumant Raman.
Reacting to the PM’s statement that the Centre has given three times as many funds over the past 10 years as the previous government did between 2004 and 2014, DMK spokesperson A Saravanan said, “It’s a blatant lie .”
Divya Chandrababu is an award-winning political and human rights journalist based in Chennai, India. Divya is presently Assistant Editor of the Hindustan Times where she covers Tamil Nadu & Puducherry. She started her career as a broadcast journalist at NDTV-Hindu where she anchored and wrote prime time news bulletins. Later, she covered politics, development, mental health, child and disability rights for The Times of India. Divya has been a journalism fellow for several programs including the Asia Journalism Fellowship at Singapore and the KAS Media Asia- The Caravan for narrative journalism. Divya has a master’s in politics and international studies from the University of Warwick, UK. As an independent journalist Divya has written for Indian and foreign publications on domestic and international affairs.