바카라�An Unspoken Dravidian Unity바카라�

While in 2014 the NDA managed a toehold in Tamil Nadu by winning two seats as part of a third front, this time in spite of aligning with the AIADMK, it failed to make any impact. The BJP바카라�s lone MP Pon. Radha­kri­shnan, lost from Kanyakumari while anot­her alliance MP, Anbumani Ramadoss of the PMK, lost from Dharmapuri. Even the AIADMK could win only one seat, that of Deputy CM OPS바카라�s son Ravindranath.

바카라�The DMK rode a frenzied anti-­BJP wave the opposition, fringe groups and a section of the media had whipped up. They won on a false narrative by accusing the BJP of acting against Tamil Nadu바카라�s interests바카라�. I hope this does not encourage the anti-national forces active in Tamil Nadu,바카라� says state BJP functionary Vanathi Srinivasan.

DMK leaders point out that the state바카라�s political thinking was always rooted in an anti-BJP ideology. 바카라�When the BJP tries to expand its footprint in Tamil Nadu there is an unspoken alliance of like-minded forces rooted in the Dravidian ethos. That is what happened in the last three years when the BJP attempted to use the vacuum after Jaya­lalitha바카라�s death to take remote control through a pliant AIADMK government. The BJP was opposed everywhere바카라�politics, soc­ial activism, media, even in cinema,바카라� exp­lains DMK MP T.K.S. Elangovan.

Faced with such antipathy, the BJP never appeared confident. Modi was accused of not visiting the state after the Vardha cyclone while his Union ministers continued to rub the electorate on the wrong side by supporting NEET and the Salem Highway project in spite of strong opposition. 바카라�There appears to be a huge disconnect between the BJP and the average Tamilian, which it is yet to overcome,바카라� observes political analyst Raveendran Duraiswamy.

However, with little representation at the Centre, Tamil Nadu could lose out, unl­ess the BJP accommodates the AIADMK바카라�s Rajya Sabha MPs. The AIADMK has 12 MPs in the Rajya Sabha and ended up with just one in the LS. Any representation to the AIADMK in the new Cabinet could be an act of tokenism.

The BJP will have to come up with a Tamil Nadu-specific long-term formula to be politically relevant in this Dravidian stronghold. That it could not make any headway even after the departure of Kar­unanidhi and Jayalalithaa means that the party has to groom its own, local leaders.

Amidst this ruinous run the only saving grace came in the form of the AIADMK squeaking through in the bypolls to the 22 assembly seats, managing to win nine, enough to maintain a slender majority in the assembly. Though CM E.K. Palani­swami will remain entrenched till May 2021, he would have to ensure that he provides a more efficient administration for a realistic chance during the next assembly elections. Though DMK chief M.K. Stalin was prepared for a Con­g­ress defeat, he was hoping for a clean sweep of the 22 assembly seats. It would have given him a chance to push EPS out of power. For now, he has to rem­ain content with being in the opposition바카라�both at the Centre and the state.