Elections 2024: BJP, Dravidian giants pull out all stops as battleground Tamil Nadu braces to vote
CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu was marked by fierce campaigns and acrimonious debates, and a never-before-seen kind of spirited fight put up by the BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to gain a foothold in the Dravidian land in 2024 was a striking feature.
Elections to 39 Lok Sabha seats in the state will be held on Friday and the fate of 950 candidates will be decided by about 6.23 crore voters who are set to exercise their franchise in nearly 68,000 polling stations.
The election mood set in pretty early in the state, in January, with the commencement of repeated visits by Modi, who combined development and honour for Tamil language and culture as his main election plank, which also had the key element of denouncing DMK-Congress over alleged corruption and 'parivarvad' politics. The state witnessed intense campaigning for nearly a month, starting in March.
Coimbatore, the hub of western Tamil Nadu, is the most keenly watched constituency in the state and the BJP's K Annamalai is slogging to emerge victorious, battling against Dravidian giants the DMK and AIADMK.
He also faces a challenge from the Tamil nationalist Naam Tamilar Katchi in the four-way contest with anti-DMK-Congress votes split into three.
The lone joint rally of Congress' Rahul Gandhi and DMK President MK Stalin in Coimbatore is a pointer to the focus on the constituency.
Arguably, the 2024 LS polls is the only one in recent history in which the BJP set the tone for campaign discourse by mounting attacks rather than being in defence by coming up with disclosures on the Katchatheevu issue, besides vehemently taking up other matters.
The Katchatheevu issue led to a slanging match between the Saffron party, led by a fierce Annamalai and the DMK-Congress combine.
While the BJP alleged betrayal by the DMK-Congress, the Dravidian and grand old party posed questions on "Chinese incursions."
Modi's campaign also saw the Katchatheevu issue gain prominence to a great degree and he sought to pin down the DMK-Congress, saying fishermen now pay the price for their betrayal.
The PM also dwelt on the drug menace, following the arrest of expelled DMK office-bearer Jaffer Sadiq by the NCB and the threat to "eradicate Sanatana Dharma."
In effect, Modi's campaign was exhaustive in Tamil Nadu and he has addressed rallies in constituencies including Chennai, Coimbatore, Vellore and Tirunelveli.
A PM visiting Tamil Nadu nine times before a LS election is undoubtedly a first in the state's history. It demonstrated the BJP's resolve to break the electoral jinx it faces in the Dravidian land, almost on its own, with the support of only a few allies, whose influence is confined to select regions.
The Pattali Makkal Katchi, the BJP's key ally, has focused its energies in Dharmapuri, where Sowmiya Anbumani is in the fray.
DMK's Dayanidhi Maran (Central Chennai), A Raja (Nilgiris), Kanimozhi (Thoothukudi), BJP's L Murugan (Nilgiris), Tamilisai Soundararajan (South Chennai), former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam (Ramanathapuram), Congress Party's Karti Chidambaram (Sivaganga), AIADMK's J Jayavardhan (South Chennai) and AMMK chief TTV Dhinakaran are among the prominent candidates.
Barring the 2014 victory of Pon Radhakrishnan from the Kanyakumari segment, the Saffron party, since 1998, has won in Tamil Nadu only when it aligned with either the AIADMK or DMK, the Dravidian twins.
South Chennai, Tirunelveli, Coimbatore, Nilgiris and Vellore are the seats where the BJP nominees have gone the extra mile to convince voters.
DMK president and Chief Minister Stalin, the star campaigner of his party, led the campaign on the themes of social justice, his regime's welfare measures and the "dangers" the nation faced due to the BJP, which have wrecked fiscal federalism.
He often described the polls as the second independence movement to free the nation from the BJP's "divisive politics" and repeated the "electoral bond scam" to claim that it has unmasked the corrupt face of the BJP.
The Saffron party will do away with reservation and change the Constitution and that it is allergic to social justice were among the allegations he made in his campaigns.
A key focus of the DMK's campaign was its "battle" to get funds from the Centre, including for flood relief.
Stalin and his party leaders said not a rupee was given by the Centre and Nirmala Sitharaman's claim of Rs 5,000 crore in central assistance to tackle the situation arising out of floods was actually the state's own borrowing from banks merely channelled through the Union government.
Stalin, throughout his campaign, did not spare the main opposition, the AIADMK.
Udhayanidhi Stalin, son of CM Stalin and a minister, crisscrossed the state, held roadshows and targeted the BJP on a slew of issues, including the "Madurai AIIMS being a non-starter."
When Udhayanidhi repeatedly attacked PM as "29 paisa Modi" as the Centre returned only "29 paisa out of every one rupee paid as tax" to the Union government by the state, Annamalai countered, saying no other state received as much funds as Tamil Nadu from the Centre and if he did not stop the 29 paisa jibe, his party will refer to him as "Ganja Udhayanidhi" as the contraband is "available widely" in the state.
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami was among the early birds on the poll landscape and he addressed a rally of ally SDPI in January and said there is no need to project a 'PM face' to seek votes.
The main opposition party's campaign was steered by Palaniswami, the former CM and leader of the opposition, who took on the ruling DMK over every single issue that mattered, including the alleged collapse of law and order and the drug menace.
Towards the end of the campaign, he fiercely attacked the BJP for being discriminatory on the basis of "caste and religion."
When Annamalai claimed AIADMK would disappear following polls, without losing cool, Palaniswami, in a repartee, said voters will teach them a lesson and no force could touch the party that has stormed several struggles.