Chennai: The BJP’s ambition to emerge as a force challenging Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu and determination to retain its strongholds across the country will be put to a stern test on Friday when the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections kick off.
If a lot is at stake for the ruling party in the 102 constituencies going to the polls as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks a stronger majority, the challenge is even bigger for the opposition INDIA bloc, whose several constituents are in a battle of survival and hope for a rebound after facing reverses in the 2014 and 2019 elections.
Among the 21 states and Union Territories where these seats are spread, Tamil Nadu has emerged as a riveting battleground thanks to the BJP’s high-octane push to open up its traditionally bipolar polity amid the main opposition AIADMK’s continued struggle since J Jayalalithaa’s death.
Elections in all the 39 seats in the state, where the BJP drew a blank in 2019, will be held on Friday.
Modi has led the saffron charge, frequenting the state for long before the polls were announced and holding several rallies and road shows since then.
The BJP, which has allied with a few smaller parties, has sought to upend the state’s conventional politics, which has so far been indifferent to Hindutva politics, by taking the ruling DMK head-on for its alleged insult of Sanatan Dharma besides involvement in corruption.
The prime minister has visited many temples in the run-up to the elections, especially in the days ahead of the Ram temple consecration ceremony in January.
He has deftly mixed this with his championing of Tamil culture and pride to counter the Dravidian criticism of the BJP as a party pushing birth India values in this State.
If Tamil Nadu is a test of BJP’s ambitions and appeal in newer territories, more conventional calculations are in play in other regions in the first phase.
The BJP-led NDA had won 39 of these 102 seats in 2019, including all 12, five and three of them in Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and West Bengal respectively. Its existing allies hold seven of them. Among other major states, eight seats in Uttar Pradesh, six in Madhya Pradesh, five each in Maharashtra and Assam, and four in Bihar will face the election on Friday.
Disaffection among a section of Jats in Rajasthan combined with rebellion by some leaders who were either in the BJP or its ally, have made the NDA’s task of retaining the state’s all 25 seats challenging, political watchers said.