Ajay Setia
In the politics of Tamil Nadu, DMK and ADMK have been alternating in power. This time, BJP has given a big blow to the traditional Dravidian politics by forming a third alliance of small and big parties there. Because of this, there has been a stir mainly in the ADMK fold.
Tamil Nadu politics has been dominated by Dravidian parties since 1967. This time the Bharatiya Janata Party has openly challenged the Dravidian parties ADMK and DMK there for the first time. The state was ruled by Congress till 1967 after the independence of the country. In 1967, for the first time, Congress lost to DMK. After that, Congress tried to challenge the Dravidian parties for some time. However, with the passage of time, the Congress party became weaker. In 1972, DMK lost power and a new party, ADMK came into existence. Since then, only two parties, sometimes ADMK and sometimes DMK, came to power in this state. BJP's image in Tamil Nadu is a Hindi-speaking party of Brahmins. Hence, BJP could never gain much foothold there. However, it was with the support of ADMK that Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the Prime Minister in 1998. Late former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa herself was a Brahmin. However, he always played Dravidian politics in the state. It can be seen that for the last twenty years ADMK has sometimes stayed with the NDA and sometimes outside the NDA.
BJP's masterstroke
In 2021, BJP challenged Dravidian politics for the first time by appointing former IPS officer Anna Malai as the state president. For the last three years, the entire state has been covered and the necessary outline has been prepared. Accordingly, some big leaders of ADMK have joined BJP. The result was that the ADMK, which was in tatters, came to power. ADMK started to fear that BJP will take its place. On June 23 last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called a meeting of the NDA. ADMK had attended that meeting. However, after that, Anna Malai's growing popularity caused unrest in the ranks of the ADMK. Finally, ADMK demanded that Anna Malai should be removed from the post of state president. The BJP rejected it and the ADMK later slammed the NDA.
An experiment in social engineering
In the last three years, BJP has built a network of eight parties, small and large, in this state through social engineering. Both the DMK and the AIADMK have lost their minds as this third force has gradually gained strength. This BJP-led alliance has fielded its candidates on all the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu this time. Anna Malai herself comes from the Gounder community. This society is divided into OBCs. The place of the Yadav community in Uttar Pradesh or Bihar is similar to that of the Gounder community in the politics of Tamil Nadu. Both MLAs of BJP belong to this Gounder community. He has been brought forward by the BJP as the future Chief Minister. Former Chief Minister and ADMK leader E Palaniswami also belongs to the Gounder community. Therefore, the ADMK has to make efforts to keep its vote bank safe.
Not only this, BJP has also set a platform to bind the backward classes in one formula in this state. By making Nainar Nagendran the leader of the Legislature party, the BJP has become close to the Thevar community. In short, through this means, BJP is gearing up to take the place of ADMK in Tamil Nadu politics by sidelining DMK. ADMK is no longer as powerful as it was during Jayalalitha's reign. Therefore, BJP has started planned cultivation to occupy that open space. In the last Lok Sabha elections, BJP had formed an alliance with ADMK. However, it was of no avail. At that time, the DMK-led alliance had won 38 out of 39 seats.
This time, three-way fights everywhere
This time DMK has once again entered the fray with its allied parties. ADMK has entered the fray with its four allied parties. At the same time, BJP has formed a new alliance with eight small parties. BJP itself is contesting in 23 seats and in other 10 seats its allies have entered the election battleground. Political observers are expressing the possibility that the traditional Dravidian votes will be divided due to these three-way contests and the BJP will benefit from it. In Haryana, the BJP had done a similar experiment in the case of the Jat community and it had achieved tremendous success. BJP has adopted the same formula in Tamil Nadu.
