A visit by Union Home Minister Amit Shah is enough to energize the BJP karyakartas in any state and change the fortunes of the party. The former BJP chief has taken the responsibility of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu on his own to sail the party in the upcoming 2021 Assembly Elections in these states.
Shah visited Tamil Nadu on November 21, which led to much political upheaval in the state. AIADMK, which a day ago was criticizing the saffron party over Vel Yatra, has made it clear that the alliance between the two parties would continue for 2021 assembly polls.
Also, he attacked DMK over the lack of performance when it was in power along with UPA.”I want to ask the DMK and Congress party what good has the UPA govt done for Tamil Nadu during their 10-year long rule at the centre. PM Narendra Modi-led central government has given the state of Tamil Nadu its due rights,” said Amit Shah.
“In last union budget of Manmohan Singh government in 2013-14, Rs 16,155 crore was allocated to Tamil Nadu. In our latest union budget, we increased this to Rs 32,850 crore for Tamil Nadu and in addition, extra was allocated,” he added further.
BJP looks to make a real dent in the state of Tamil Nadu this year. For decades, BJP made no real attempts to expand its footprint in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. While Tamil Nadu has descended in Dravidian politics since the 1950s, Kerala kept oscillating between the Communist alliance and Congress-Islamic parties’ alliance. After the unexpected single-party majority in the 2014 general election, the saffron party started expanding throughout the length and breadth of the country and fought the 2016 assembly election in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Given the fact that 87.6 per cent of Tamil Nadu’s population is Hindu and a majority of them are very Dharmic people, there is a vast ground for Hindutva politics in the state. Therefore, the party leaders undertook the Vel Yatra- on the lines of Rath Yatra taken by L K Advani- in the honour of Bhagwan Murugan from November 6.
The Yatra was expected to start from Tiruttani temple in the north of Tamil Nadu and culminate at Tiruchendur temple in the south, covering six abodes of Bhagwan Murugan (For those who are not aware- Kartikeya, son of Shiva and Parvathi, is worshipped as Bhagwan Murugan in South India and Southeast Asia).
In the last few months, BJP has increased its activities to blow the bugle for the upcoming elections in the state. Last month, Khusbhu Sundar – one of the most popular actresses of Tamil Cinema, joined BJP after she quit Congress on the grounds of being suppressed by the high command of the party. Also, former DMK MP KP Ramalingam, who was suspended from the party a few months ago for speaking against MK Stalin and aligning with MK Alagiri, has joined BJP in the presence of Amit Shah.
BJP surely can fill the gap of non-Dravidian politics in Tamil Nadu. With the emergence of scientific evidence against Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) in the last few years, many Tamilians have started rejecting it and want an alternative. The saffron party seems all set to provide Hindutva alternative to the toxic Dravidian politics in the state. Amit Shah’s visit to the state on November 21 will surely energize the workers in the state.