The saffron clan’s attempts to gain hold on the South was visible from the list of nine candidates it floated for Tamil Nadu on Thursday. The state has the highest number of Lok Sabha seats among other southern states, that is, 39, out of which the Bharatiya Janata Party will contest 20 seats this time.
The list reminds us of BJP’s failure to clinch even a single seat from Tamil Nadu in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Strategy and timing lie at the heart of politics. And the BJP never fails to prove its potential in this regard.
The party has fielded Tamil Nadu unit chief K Annamalai as its candidate for the Coimbatore Lok Sabha seat, whereas Union Minister L Murugan has been named from The Nilgiris.
This particular development was expected. With his name making it to the list, Annamalai will make his Lok Sabha debut. Although he faced drubbing at the hands of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam candidate in 2021 assembly polls, BJP has high hopes from him. This is expected, too, as Annamalai’s position in Tamil Nadu’s politics has become significant with time. The 39-year-old leader seems to have used the failure in the assembly polls to fuel his political career. Coimbatore, thereby, being the second largest city in Tamil Nadu after Chennai, is also known for its urban population. So the youth will connect to someone like Annamalai, who holds a supercop image with powerful leadership and oratory skills. A proof of this came to the forefront when he led the state-wide yatra — En Mann En Makkal (My land, My People) — in 2023.
Annamalai will take on DMK’s Ganapathi P Rajkumar and AIADMK’s Singai G Ramachandran in what is going to be another high-octane battle.
L Murugan is a Union Minister, who provided BJP with the much-needed access to the state. The news of fielding him from the Nilgris is nothing new. Rumours around this development started doing the rounds for a considerable period of time. He is expected to defeat DMK’s heavyweight leader A Raja from the seat. While we do not know who will make it to the Parliament, yet the contest between the both will get traction from several quarters.
Tamilisai Soundararajan recently became the talk of the town by her out-of-the-box decision to quit as Telangana governor just to return to electoral politics. With her nomination, BJP leadership reminded one of the proverb, ‘your wish, my (our) command’. She has got the Chennai South Lok Sabha seat where BJP is influential. Moreover, Soundararajan, too, has contributed immensely to the growth of the party in the state which has added to her popularity. She had to face defeat at the hands of Kanimozhi in the last general elections. However, the party has restored faith in Soundararajan by nominating her from the seat which she, reportedly, longed for.
However, a point of concern for the BJP here is that she has a formidable rival from the seat— Sitting DMK MP, T Sumathy alias Thamizhachi Thangapandian. He has been re-nominated by the ruling party. So the grass does not seem much greener on the other side for the BJP.
Former Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan has been fielded from Kanyakumari— a seat which he represented in 2014. In the 2014 general elections, he was the only MP from the state. Radhakrishnan is a party veteran who will go head on with (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) AIADMK’s Basilian Nazreth (The Congress has not nominated anyone from the seat yet).
The BJP’s third list is nothing short of a show that cushions the saffron party’s determination to make inroads in the South. However, the final verdict lies with the electorate.
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