With the failure of the Modi magic in Bihar, political commentators are of the view that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah need not waste their time campaigning in Tamil Nadu which goes to the polls in six months from now. The BJP and the Congress, two prominent national parties, have become irrelevant in Tamil Nadu politics, said veteran commentators N Kalyanasundaram and Govindaraj Sathyamoorthi.
The Congress has already lost its relevance in Tamil Nadu which was proved in the 2014 lok Sabha election when the party candidates lost their deposits in 38 of the 39 constituencies. Though Narendra Modi had campaigned extensively in Tamil Nadu, the NDA could win only two seats, Kanyakumari (BJP) and Dharmapuri (PMK) and that too because of five-cornered contests.
The NDA which had MDMK, PMK, DMDK and a host of caste organisations got disintegrated immediately after the 2014 lok Sabha election. “There were some fringe parties hanging around the BJP. But they are all having second thoughts and moving towards the DMK,” said Kalyanasundaram.
No political parties are showing any inclination to join the NDA bandwagon led by the BJP. Even Vijayakanth, a trusted ally who campaigned extensively for the NDA candidates during the lok sabha elections, has washed his hands of the BJP. “We are not in any alliance at the moment,” Vijayakanth declared at Tiruppur last week. The PMK, which has launched its campaign has made it clear that the BJP could join the PMK-led alliance at the terms and conditions set by party founder Ramadoss.
“Though Amit Shah had exhorted the State BJP leaders to enrol one crore new members into the BJP in his November 2014 rally at Chennai, the party is nowhere near the target. The Tamil Nadu BJP is being seen as a clueless outfit,” said Sathyamoorthy.
While Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan claimed in February 2015 that the party has enrolled 70 lakh members, the party’s national general secretary in Tamil Nadu P Muraleedhar Rao said last week that only 50 lakh workers has been enrolled into the BJP.
The BJP was never a force to reckon with in Tamil Nadu. Its efforts to emerge as an alternative to the Dravidian majors like the AIADMK and the DMK has come a cropper. When Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was convicted and sentenced by the Bangalore special court in September 2014, the Tamil Nadu BJP chief Tamilissai Sounderarajan said her party would fill up the vacuum created by the exit of the AIADMK. But the Karnataka High Court acquitted the AIADMK supremo of all charges and she made an impressive come back as Chief Minister.