A massive discontent is brewing up in Tamil Nadu BJP, the only party in the State which has failed to find an alliance partner to fight the upcoming Assembly election. While the AIADMK and the DMK have forged alliance with other parties and caste and communal outfits, the BJP has not only lost its 2014 lok Sabha alliance partners, but also failed to find a new ally.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had polled 18.5 per cent of the total votes in 2014 lok Sabha election while the Congress which contested alone could poll hardly 4.3 per cent of the votes. Now the BJP finds itself without a friend or an ally.
leaders of Tamil Nadu BJP are struggling hard to put up a brave face. Its former allies like the MDMK and the DMDK are constituents of the People’s Welfare Front (PWF) while the PMK of the Vanniyar caste has gone solo to make Anbumani Ramadoss the Chief Minister.
Immediately after the lok Sabha election, leaders of Tamil Nadu BJP were on cloud nine and claimed that the party would be the alternative to both the AIADMK and the DMK. Amit Shah, party all India chief, had given some homework to the State leaders in a well-attended public meeting in December 2014 held in a Chennai suburb.”There are 60,000 booths in the State. You should ensure that 100 new members are enrolled in each of these booths. This will help us in increasing the membership of the party in Tamil Nadu by 60 lakh,” Shah had told the cadre.
He had also said that the BJP was targeting the Bay of Bengal States as part of its move to establish a pan-India presence. Shah had appointed Union Ministers Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Piyush Goyal and Prakash Jawadekar in quick succession to revamp the Tamil Nadu BJP. But nothing has moved an inch from the day Shah addressed the party cadre in December 2014.
last August, BJP’s State chief Tamilissai Sounderarajan claimed that the party has enrolled 45 lakh members through the “missed call” membership drive launched by Shah. “We have stopped the membership drive temporarily to train the 45 lakh new members,” said Sounderarajan in August 2015. But people in small cities or villages are sceptical about the claim by the leadership.
“Nothing has been done by the State leadership to strengthen the BJP in Tamil Nadu. Most of the leaders suffer from either the DMK or the AIADMK obsession. They do not want the BJP to grow in Tamil Nadu,” said a national council member.
“The present leadership has proved its incapability by goofing up its efforts to forge an alliance with the Vijayakant-led DMDK or the PMK led by Ramadoss. The central leadership of the BJP is responsible for this state of affairs. They should entrust the responsibility of Tamil Nadu BJP to someone who understands the State as well as the people” a top RSS functionary told The Pioneer.
He said he was shocked to learn how Tamil Nadu BJP leadership treats senior leaders like Subramanian Swamy who is the only popular face of the party in the State. “Swamy is the most popular leader in Tamil Nadu. But he is not acceptable to the State leaders of the BJP,” said the RSS leader.
Equally disturbing was how Saratkumar, the president of AISMK, was given a raw deal when he announced his interest to forge an alliance with the BJP. “I waited for more than a month and there was no response from the BJP leadership,” Saratkumar who has considerable influence among the Nadar community, told The Pioneer.
As on Sunday, BJP remains without friends or allies. But Soundararajan claims the party would come out soon with a “unique alliance”.