The news about the bishops and vicars of all Churches in Tamil Nadu declaring their support to the DMK in the upcoming Lok Sabha election has jolted the ruling AIADMK as well as the BJP.
Though the Church or the Bishops Council of Tamil Nadu have not made any formal declaration about the support to the DMK, the deal was struck during the Christmas gala held at Tiruchirappalli last Saturday which was attended by party chief MK Stalin and heads of all Churches and “Ministries” in the State.
It may be noted that the Bishops Council of Tamil Nadu had declared their support to the DMK-led alliance in the 2016 assembly election. A signed statement by Antony Pappusamy, Archbishop of Madurai, was read out during congregations and was released to the media in the run up to the assembly election.
The result of the 2016 assembly election was in the expected lines. The AIADMK led by Jayalalithaa won by a whisker. But what stood out in the assembly election was the wash out suffered by the AIADMK in the southern district of Kanyakumari where Christians constitute 46.9 per cent of the population.
The DMK-Congress alliance swept the Kanyakumari district by winning all the six assembly constituencies with comfortable margins. All the candidates who got elected from the district belonged to Christian community. These six constituencies constitute the Kanyakumari Lok Sabha constituency which is presently represented by Pon Radhakrishnan of the BJP who is also the minister of state for finance and surface transport. Radhakrishnan won the 2014 election because there was no alliance between the DMK, the Congress and the Left parties.
The 2004 Lok Sabha election saw the Rainbow Alliance led by the DMK and which had the blessings of the Church obliterating the Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK by sweeping all the 40 Lok Sabha seats (39 from Tamil Nadu and the lone seat from Puducherry).
In the eventuality of the Lefts too join the DMK-Congress bandwagon, Radhakrishnan and the BJP are in for trouble, said a senior BJP leader in Tamil Nadu. But the DMK-Congress alliance alone could derail the chances of Radhakrishnan making it to Lok Sabha in the 2019 election
A scientific paper published by Centre for Policy Studies, a Chennai based independent think-tank specialising in demographic studies and which was accessed by The Pioneer points out that Christians constitute 6.12 per cent of the total population of 7.22 crore in Tamil Nadu.
"Tamil Nadu has a considerable Christian population. Of the total 2.78 crore Christians counted in India in 2011, 44 lakh are in Tamil Nadu, where they form 6.12 percent of the population. Their number and share in Tamil Nadu is the highest of all major States except the adjoining Kerala. Tamil Nadu and Kerala account for more than 1 crore of Christians in the country," said the paper authored by JK Bajaj, MD Srinivas and AP Joshi, all demography experts.
What stands out in the study is the observation made by the authors that despite their not so big presence in the State, Christian population is distributed in the State in such a way that they wield big influence. The three districts of Thanjavur, Tiruchirappalli and Dindigul have a total Christian population of 5.5 lakh .While Tiruchirappalli has 9 per cent Christian population, Dindigul and Thanjavur closely follow with 7.9 and 5.6 per cent respectively. No political parties in Tamil Nadu can hope to win the election without enlisting the support of the Christian community in the State.