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Editorial

BJP eyes on Tamil Nadu

After the death of Jayalalithaa, there is a clear political vacuum in Tamil Nadu. The prevailing political instability appears giving a chance to the national parties to dent this Dravidian political fortress that none of the national parties could breach in the last six decades. The nothingness created by Jayalalitha's exit has now opened the gates for others who have been trying hard to sneak into the state's politics for long, including the newcomers from within the state and outsiders. It is apparent that the BJP has been carefully shaping the internal feud in the ruling AIDMK, to fish its agenda. The BJP got its first success in Tamil Nadu when it succeeded in compliance of Centre's much-hyped rollout of GST and NEET without much resistance from the comparatively weak AIDMK government there. The IT raids on business establishments of the political leaders also toned down the voices of resistance from the AIDMK and DMK leaders. Some of them have already started working out private arrangements with the BJP politicians to secure their political futures. Notably, in the recent past, both the Dravidian parties have significantly diluted their 'Dravidian' ideologies. Since the voters have developed an unwarranted distrust for them, the widespread Dravidian idea in the state is waning. And, this is the point where the BJP appears to have cracked this riddle – to keep its ideology down in the near-term, focus on projecting a local charismatic leader,

The IT raids on business establishments of the political leaders also toned down the voices of resistance from the AIDMK and DMK leaders. Some of them have already started working out private arrangements with the BJP politicians to secure their political futures. Notably, in the recent past, both the Dravidian parties have significantly diluted their 'Dravidian' ideologies. Since the voters have developed an unwarranted distrust for them, the widespread Dravidian idea in the state is waning. And, this is the point where the BJP appears to have cracked this riddle – to keep its ideology down in the near-term, focus on projecting a local charismatic leader, catchphrase of corrupt-free governance and push AIDMK's voter base. The BJP is much aware of the Congress' mistakes in Tamil Nadu. After Kamraj, the Congress could not create another leader having similar mass appeal. The BJP is leaving no stone unturned to bring Rajinikanth into its fold.

The BJP president Amit Shah, who is famous in carving out new faces from the tested socio-political coalitions, also plans to create a new architecture of social engineering. As he has planned a series of meetings with the leaders of OBC groups carrying 68 percent of Tamil Nadu population, he could repeat the magic of 2014 Lok Sabha elections, when the NDA gained over 18 percent of the vote share. As the growing Tamil nationalism among the youth visible during the Jallikattu protests and the Hindi imposition issue has become the new offshoot of Dravidian ideology, it would be interesting to see that how the BJP's nationalist identity reconciles with the strong Tamil sub-national linguistic and cultural pride.

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