On January 22, amidst the Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party’s fervent celebrations of the Ram temple consecration in Ayodhya, a striking juxtaposition unfolded on the streets of T Nagar. At the end of the street housing the party headquarters, a life-size cutout of the deity Ram stood prominently. Quietly neighbouring this depiction of Ram was an image of Vladimir Lenin. The Communist Party of India (Marxist), which is also headquartered on the same street, was observing the death centenary of the Marxist ideologue.
Amidst the bustling thoroughfares of T Nagar, Vaidyaraman Street pulsates with energy. Here, both parties coexist as neighbours.
The juxtaposition encapsulates the idea of Tamil Nadu.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
“Their (the BJP’s) idea of Ram is more about politics and not faith. There is a difference between Gandhi’s Ram and BJP’s Ram. I think people of Tamil Nadu know this too well,” says G. Ramakrishnan, a senior CPI(M) leader in Tamil Nadu.
For more than four decades, the BJP has been striving to establish a foothold in Tamil Nadu. The party achieved its first breakthrough in the state’s political landscape in 1996 when C. Velayutham was elected as the first BJP MLA from the Padmanabhapuram constituency in Kanyakumari district. Prior to that, in 1984, V Balachandran secured victory as an independent candidate, supported by the Hindu Munnani, from the same constituency.
A riot and a foothold
A.S. Panneerselvan, a senior journalist and author of Karunanidhi: A Life, notes that the communal clashes at Mandaikadu in Kanyakumari district provided the BJP with an electoral opening.
The Mandaikadu clashes in 1982 reportedly began due to a rumour alleging Christian youth had harassed Hindu women during the Bhagavathi Amman temple festival. The violence led to the deaths of at least nine people, including those shot by the police. T. Arul Ezhilan, a Tamil Nadu journalist, said that the Mandaikadu clashes lasted longer than similar incidents in the state. Recounting his experience witnessing the clashes as a third or fourth-grade student, Ezhilan described how people who were once like brothers were made to fight each other. He explained, “The clash happened because of rumours about how Christians were denigrating Hindu gods and how they were misbehaving with Hindu women. Their penchant for using rumours to drive a wedge between people is well-documented.”
Ezhilan also emphasises that the Mandaikadu clashes were the result of sustained efforts by Hindutva forces in Kanyakumari district. “For more than a decade,” he asserts, “Hindutva forces worked to indoctrinate ordinary people, inciting them against minorities.” Ezhilan describes Mandaikadu as a “laboratory” where the Hindutva experiment was effectively executed in Tamil Nadu.
But this success proved to be short-lived.
Not much progress
Even years after the Hindutva ideology secured its first representative in the Tamil Nadu assembly in 1984, the party, as Panneerselvan points out, is still struggling to make significant headway. “At the national level, they had only two MPs in the same period. If you compare their trajectory nationally from that point and in Tamil Nadu, you’ll realise that there hasn’t been much progress,” he observes. “Today, they hold an absolute majority at the national level, but Tamil Nadu continues to present a formidable challenge.”
In 1996, the BJP secured its first MLA in Tamil Nadu. Two years later, in 1998, in alliance with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the party won three parliamentary seats in the state. C.P. Radhakrishnan emerged victorious from Coimbatore, Rangarajan Kumaramangalam from Tiruchy, and Master Mathan from Nilgiris. The lead-up to this election was marked by communal tensions in Coimbatore between Hindus and Muslims.
Subsequently, a series of blasts orchestrated by Al-Umma shook the city. Under the circumstances, Radhakrishnan managed to secure victory with a record margin of one lakh votes. Observers say that the groundwork for the BJP’s success in Coimbatore had been laid since the 1980s, with Hindutva forces led by the Hindu Munnani working to polarise the Hindu and Muslim communities. Today, the BJP is seeking to leverage the groundwork laid in Coimbatore, where its state chief K. Annamalai is challenging the Dravidian majors. However, as Panneerselvan notes, the BJP has struggled to secure consistent victories in both Kanyakumari and Coimbatore. “Both are entry points to Kerala, and the BJP had hoped to capitalise on this. But they have not been able to fully achieve their goals in either of these places.”
Tamil Nadu’s BJP chief K. Annamalai. Photo: X/@annamalai_k
In 1999, the BJP contested the parliament elections in alliance with the DMK and emerged victorious in four seats. In addition to Nilgiris, Coimbatore, and Tiruchirapalli, the party’s candidate Pon Radhakrishnan also reclaimed the Nagercoil Lok Sabha seat (later renamed the Kanyakumari constituency), which he had lost to the Tamil Maanila Congress in the previous election. Kanyakumari remained the sole constituency the party managed to secure in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, where the BJP had formed an alliance with the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam, Pattali Makkal Katchi, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, and other smaller parties. In 2019, though, the party lost all the five seats it had contested in alliance with the AIADMK.
A long wait
After making their debut of sorts in the assembly in 1984, the BJP achieved its first significant breakthrough in an assembly election in 2001. Contesting in 21 constituencies in alliance with the DMK, they secured victory in four seats. Despite this initial success, the party faced disappointment in the subsequent three Assembly elections, failing to secure any seats. However, their fortunes changed in the 2021 elections when, in alliance with the AIADMK, they finally won four seats.
A point of contention between the AIADMK and the BJP revolves around their respective roles in the 2021 elections. While Annamalai asserts that the BJP played a crucial role in securing a considerable number of seats for the AIADMK, leaders from the AIADMK argue that without their support, the BJP would not have clinched the four seats they won. A notable example is the Coimbatore assembly constituency. “If Kamal Haasan was not a candidate at that time, one doesn’t know if Vanathi Srinivasan of the BJP would have won the seat,” remarks Panneerselvan. “If you closely analyse the numbers, she was not in a comfortable position.” Vanathi defeated Kamal Haasan by a slender margin of 1,728 votes.
The 2024 election is critical for the BJP as they strive to make significant progress in Tamil Nadu. Annamalai has expressed confidence, stating that the party aims to secure a vote share exceeding 20 percent. The party is contesting in 19 of the 39 seats and in alliance with PMK and few other smaller parties. Ever since the elections were announced, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made over half a dozen visits to the state holding road shows and public meetings.
Also read: Can Modi’s Newfound Love for Tamil Nadu Translate into Votes?
However, Panneerselvan suggests that this goal might be more about winning the perception battle. “If they touch the 20% mark, they could claim to have won the perception war,” he remarks. With the AIADMK still in the process of consolidation following Jayalalithaa’s passing, this election is poised to be closely watched.
“If the BJP continues to face challenges in making headway in Tamil Nadu, it reflects a collective understanding among the electorate,” observes Panneerselvan. “This collective understanding is not attributable to a single factor but rather encompasses various interlocking dynamics, influenced by regional nuances. Therefore, the BJP is likely to encounter difficulties in surpassing the threshold in the state.”
Panneerselvan also points out how grassroots-level indicators do not bode well for the BJP, citing its limited presence in local bodies. “The party should ideally have at least five councillors in urban bodies, but in Chennai Corporation, they only have one,” he notes. Despite the AIADMK-BJP alliance’s significant victory in the 2021 assembly election from Coimbatore, they failed to replicate this success in the subsequent local body elections, indicating a lack of grassroots-level penetration.
Even in the current election, the BJP has fielded all its former presidents, including Pon Radhakrishnan, Tamilisai, and L Murugan, as candidates. Panneerselvan adds, “Annamalai, the current president, is also a candidate. The alliance partners have also fielded prominent faces as candidates. The question then arises, if they had to rely on prominent faces, how has the vote bank changed?”
Pon Radhakrishnan canvasses ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Photo: X/@PonnaarrBJP
He further observes that the BJP’s internal contradictions are becoming increasingly apparent. “Consider the Katchatheevu issue. They raised it as a significant point of debate, yet there is not a single mention of Katchatheevu in their election manifesto. This disparity between rhetoric and reality has reached the public consciousness, as seen in the memes circulating about vada.”
Memes featuring vada (a metaphor for lies) have been prominent on social media during this election season. A meme referencing the Prime Minister’s interview on Thanthi TV humorously suggests that vada is his favourite food from Tamil Nadu. In another instance, DMK leader A. Raja, who is contesting from Nilgiris against AIADMK’s Lokesh Thamizhselvan and BJP’s L Murugan, cooked vadas as part of his campaign and distributed them among onlookers, humorously labelling them ‘Modi vada.’
At a certain juncture, both the AIADMK and the DMK opted to confine their contest to each other, regarding the BJP as an external entity. For instance, industries minister T.R.B. Raja, who oversees Coimbatore for the DMK, declined to address a question during a press conference about the BJP, emphasising that the party was not the principal opposition. Similarly, AIADMK leaders have consistently asserted that the contest primarily revolves around themselves and the DMK.
It is perhaps this sidelining that compelled Annamalai to stir up controversies to keep himself and the party in the spotlight. But by doing so, observers say that he reinforces the notion that the BJP is engaged in a perception battle. He recently remarked that the AIADMK would cease to exist after June 4, suggesting that party loyalists would instead support Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) leader T.T.V. Dinakaran, who is the nephew of V.K. Sasikala. Sasikala was a close associate of former AIADMK leader and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. AMMK is contesting the election as part of the BJP alliance, and Dinakaran himself is running for office from Theni.
He has also been engaging in confrontations with journalists during press conferences and with the police when asked to halt campaigning after the designated hours. Annamalai’s defense is that he simply greets his supporters with folded hands as he walks past them and does not consider it active campaigning.
Annamalai likely believes that this perception politics will translate into votes. However, Arul Ezhilan notes, “The roadshows organised by the BJP have not attracted large crowds, except perhaps in Tirunelveli. The BJP has managed to consolidate three significant caste groups in the South – the Dalits, the Hindu Nadars, and Thevars. But it is doubtful whether this will translate into electoral gains for them.”
Arul Ezhilan also suggests that winning this election with a ‘communal agenda’ is challenging. “While the BJP is eager for immediate gains in this election, they are also working towards long-term goals, hoping to reap dividends in the coming decades. Currently, the social consciousness and pluralistic Dravidian ideology ingrained in Tamil Nadu have hindered the BJP’s strategies. Alongside Pinarayi Vijayan, Stalin has emerged as a symbol and stronghold of the South. Breaking this stronghold is impossible for now.”
In the 2019 elections, voters in the Madurai constituency participated in the annual temple festival before casting their votes in favor of CPI(M) MP S. Venkatesan – a trend that confounded many right-wing analysts. This intricacy of Tamil Nadu’s social fabric, where individuals separate their political affiliations from their religious beliefs, may hold the key to understanding the state’s political landscape.
