Controversies created by its own leaders have marred the prospects of the BJP making any impact in Tamil Nadu politics, which has been left rudderless by the demises of AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa and chief of the DMK, M Karunanidhi.
H Raja, the national secretary of the BJP, faces series of litigations in the Madras High Court for his reported outbursts against the police and the judiciary, made during last week’s Vinayaka Chathurthi festival.
Tamil Nadu advocate general Vijay Narayan on Tuesday issued a show cause notice to Raja asking why statutory consent should not be granted to a lawyer to initiate criminal contempt of court proceedings for his recent “scandalous” comments against judiciary.
Raja has been a keenly monitored “object” in the radar of the non-BJP parties in Tamil Nadu. The BJP leader kept them in good humour with his “foot in the mouth” statements. There was a furor among the Dravidians in the State last year when Raja exhorted the BJP cadre to pull down all statues of E V Ramasamy Naicker, founder of the Dravida Kazhakam. The DMK chief Stalin had demanded Raja’s arrest under the National Security Act for this statement.
This time Raja has company in the form of Tamilissai Sounderarajan, the president of the Tamil Nadu BJP. Political commentators as well as her colleagues in the party are unanimous in their view that the lady has become a liability for the party having failed to make any inroads in Tamil Nadu despite a number of favourable factors. “She is a total failure ,” said a senior leader in Tamil Nadu BJP.
On Monday , Sounderarajan and a tiff with an auto rickshaw driver when the latter challenged her over the ever increasing fuel prices. Taken aback by media reports about the spar, she called on the auto driver Kathir and made it a media event. Kathir who spoke to media on Wednesday said that his opinion about the BJP remained unchanged. “Her visit caused a dent on my pocket as I could not go to work,” Kathir told reporters.
“Though there is enough space in Tamil Nadu’s political landscape for another party and leader, the BJP is not going to make an impact because of poor leadership,” said a national level activist of the party. “Show me one person from the State leadership who is capable of inspiring the cadre,” said this leader who did not want his name to be quoted. He also pointed out that party cadre were disappointed over intense factionalism in the State unit.
“The BJP in Tamil Nadu is in Intensive Care Unit and survives on the life support system provided by the Centre. There is no possibility of the party winning a single seat in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections,” said Govindarajan Satyamurthy, veteran scribe apolitical commentator.
There are reports ion vernacular media that the national leadership of the BJP is pinning their hopes on Rajnikanth, the superstar of Tamil films to turn around the fortunes of the party. Rajnikanth (68) had declared on the new year eve that he would launch a political outfit and fight the elections. But even after nine months, there is no sign of the superstar’s political party coming alive.
The question being asked is whether it is possible for Rajnikanth to launch a party, appoint grass root level leaders and cadre to monitor all polling booths in the State and find out 39 candidates to be fielded from the State. The election is just seven months away and there has been no word from Rajnikanth during the last three months.