No takers for BJP in Tamil Nadu, party must choose between PMK and going solo

Chennai: The Bharatiya Janata Party may be the most powerful national party but there are no takers for it in Tamil Nadu. It seems no Dravidian party wants to join hands with the BJP in the current Assembly election. The BJP was hoping that the ruling AIADMK would give the party some seats in the Assembly election.

After making the party wait for some time, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa snubbed it by deciding not to share seats with the BJP. Once Jaya slammed the doors on the BJP, the party leadership led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah sent their emissary and Union Minister Prakash Javadekar to actor-turned-politician Vijaykanth of the DMDK hoping that he would give some seats to them. After initial enthusiasm, Vijaykanth also cold shouldered the BJP by forging an alliance with Vaiko’s MDMK and other smaller Dravidian parties.

A shocked BJP is now trying to forge an alliance with the father-son led PMK. The PMK of Dr Ramdoss and his son Dr Anbumani is fighting the election on prohibition plank. If the PMK agrees, the lotus party will have a local partner in the state. But if the PMK also dumps the BJP, it will be forced to go solo.

Even in the previous 2011 Assembly election, the BJP had contested on its own. The party failed to win even a single seat and polled just 2.6% votes. According to political analysts, the same situation might repeat once again, if the party fails to woo PMK.

The BJP has always struggled to get a foothold in the state. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the BJP had joined a grand alliance of non-AIADMK, non-DMK parties. Finally it managed to win just one seat out of the total seven seats it had contested. Its lone MP from Kanyakumari, Pon Radhakrishnan is a Minister of State at the Centre. The BJP had polled 5.6% votes in that election.

On joining hands with PMK, Radhakrishnan said, “We are open to anyone who wants to join. We will come out with the alliance in next two days.”

He added, “We have prepared the list of candidates on Thursday night. Now we will take it to the high command in Delhi who will take the final call. We have already decided not to form an alliance with both the Dravidian parties.”

After Modi’s big win in 2014, there were talks of the BJP going with Jayalalithaa in 2016 Assembly polls. After the BJP lost Assembly elections in Delhi and Bihar, the mood among the one time allies seems to have turned against the party.

If the BJP goes with the PMK, it will have to do a lot of explaining. The chief ministerial candidate of the PMK, Dr Anbumani Ramdoss, is facing a CBI inquiry in connection with a scam that took place when he was union health minister in the UPA-1 government at the Centre. The BJP had demanded his resignation then.

Like they say “there are no permanent foes and friends in politics”. But, for the BJP, there are only foes and no friends in the sight in Tamil Nadu.

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