At a time when rival AIADMK factions stare at a now-or-never moment to bury the hatchet, BJP president Amit Shah is slated to arrive in Tamil Nadu in the second half of August. The visit first scheduled in May was postponed for various reasons, including the R K Nagar by-elections that diminished AIADMK deputy general secretary T T V Dhinakaran and gave Delhi a handle to soften the party at its time of choosing.
That Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent ample time in recent weeks with Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami who heads the ruling faction and rebel leader O Panneerselvam indicates the importance he attaches to maintaining stability in the state. By invoking late chief minister J Jayalalithaa multiple times at the Kalam memorial launch at Peikarumbu in Rameswaram, calling her Amma and saying he missed her friendship, Modi sent out an unambiguous message of fraternity to the AIADMK cadre. The induction of the party into the NDA, if and when it happens, would be the icing on the cake after pocketing Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his JD(U).
But for Modi’s re-engineering to work, he needs a party apparatus that has the ability to size up the situation, exploit the perceived vacuum and grow rapidly. That is the challenge Amit Shah will try to address when he visits the state. In Tamilisai Soundararajan, he has a party head who is very visible and voluble but perhaps does not have enough clout.
A couple of months ago, the party sent out a call for vistaraks —cadre who work full time for a week or fortnight—to fan out into the heartland and enrol members. The appeal for vistaraks was signed by Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan, not Tamilisai. Tells you something about power equations within the party. Shah’s stated intention is to extensively reach out to the OBCs to expand the party’s voter base. It remains to be seen how he goes about achieving it and primes the party to seize the opportunity that knocks but once.