BJP Gaining In Tamil Nadu At AIADMK’s Expense

Nothing spooked AIADMK more than a recent weekly magazine survey which showed that the BJP had stolen the salience over other Opposition parties in Tamil Nadu and was headed to a larger vote share than the grand old party of MGR-Jaya. Insiders were busy arguing over what was going wrong in the Edappadi K Palaniswami-led party. Naturally, the blame was shifted to the leader for his inability to form an alliance that alone guarantees some success in vote share in the complicated Dravidian politics. There is no doubt that the national BJP, taking baby steps in TN with a reshuffle that found a leader in K Annamalai who has become a well-recognised face in the state, moved up in the party’s reckoning with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s contribution by way of referring often to the state’s Tamil literary luminaries also sizeable. The Lok Sabha polls will throw light on how far the party has come in difficult terrain, but there is no doubt that the Ram temple opening has moved a lot of people of faith into the party’s corner. Meanwhile the AIADMK, struggling to find allies, was picking on the PMK and DMDK not having decided yet on where they will go to offer them a number of seats closer to their expectations. All may not be lost yet for the AIADMK front, but the writing is on the wall that the BJP may be stealing a march in Dravidian turf.