Some leaders from BJP want to go solo in urban local body polls
Many of the BJP Tamil Nadu leaders are putting pressure on the party’s national leadership to go alone after the Paattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) snapped ties with the AIADMK during October 2021 rural local body polls.
The BJP leaders are said to believe that while the DMK is a tight coalition with a grassroots presence, the AIADMK has reduced itself into a party that comes together during the elections only. BJP leader in Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Nainar Nagenthran recently came out strongly against the AIADMK state leadership indicating that the BJP wanted to go alone in the polls.
However, the state president of the BJP, K Annamalai was trying hard to mend fences and to downplay the statement of Nagenthran.
A large section of the BJP leaders in Tamil Nadu is of the opinion that AIADMK lower-level cadres and the BJP cadres do not go along well and that in the 2021 Assembly elections, the AIADMK did not transfer votes to the BJP candidates. The BJP TN leaders are of the opinion that if the party breaks its ties during the Urban local body elections, it could get some leverage in the grassroots and could develop its cadre base.
The PMK represents the powerful Vanniyar community in Tamil Nadu. It had contested in the 2014 Lok Sabha election in an alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA. They had also contested 23 seats in the AIADMK alliance in the 2021 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election and won five seats.
The AIADMK has been drawing criticism from several corners over the party not being able to carry out many agitations against the DMK government on issues, including the poor quality of materials supplied in Pongal gift hampers.
The AIADMK leadership has denied the charges stating that COVID-19 and its restrictions have hampered the party’s efforts to organize the grassroots agitations against the DMK government.
The BJP is also miffed at the fact that the AIADMK had maintained silence over serious issues like religious conversions at schools and slums by the Christian groups and the attack on BJP and RSS workers by the Islamist groups.
A senior leader of the AIADMK from Theni said, “The BJP as a political party does not have any grassroots support in Tamil Nadu and it will be like this even for the next 50 years. It’s a Brahmanical party that is not accepted in South India at least not in Tamil Nadu and the BJP got a semblance of respect only with the alliance it has had with us at the grassroots. Let them contest the Urban local body elections on their own and we can see the results.”
[With Inputs from IANS]
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Allah-O-Akbar if this happens for AIDMK is a dying party
The sooner it was done, it will be better. No chance of growth by acting as a tail of a Dravidian party. Even if there are set-backs initially, it will lay foundations for future growth of BJP. As it was a national policy, “Aatma Nirbarata” is the only way out for the BJP in TN or for that matter anywhere else.