CAN BJP STORM THE SOUTH?

CRUCIAL TO ITS GRAND AMBITION OF 400-PLUS SEATS, THE PARTY GOES ON A WAR FOOTING IN THE FIVE SOUTHERN STATES. BUT WITH EACH STRONGHOLD POSING A SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGE, IT IS A TASK EASIER SET THAN DONE

- RAJ CHENGAPPA & AMARNATH K. MENON

PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI HAS THE RARE ABILITY to visualise the big picture and then, like an artist, proceed to execute it stroke by stroke. As he told India Today in an interview last December, “When I start something, I know the endpoint. But I never announce the final destination or blueprint in the beginning. There is a progressive unfolding of my vision and plans.” On April 9, 10 days before the voting date in Tamil Nadu, the prime minister held a massive road show in Chennai that wended its way through T. Nagar in the heart of the city and, just as it was about to end, declared: “Chennai has won me over.”

The symbolism of the route the prime minister took for his rally wasn’t lost on Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, who is also the president of the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and heads the eight-party Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) that is collectively contesting the 39 Lok Sabha seats in the state. At a public meeting in Dindigul the next day, the CM thundered, “Dear PM, do you know how T. Nagar, the place you held your road show yesterday, got its name? It’s named after a Justice Party leader. It’s a Dravidian fort and you think you can showcase your work there?” The Justice Party, founded in 1916, is thought of as the progenitor of the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu, among whose founders was Theagaraya Chetty after whom T. Nagar is named. That movement turned political with the formation of the DMK in 1949, which, along with its splinter group—the All India Anna DMK (AIADMK)—has ruled the state alternately since 1967. No national party—not even the Cong­ress—has been able to shake their hold till date.