It is common knowledge by now that the BJP has hardly made any electoral impact in Tamil Nadu. However, in 2014, the saffron party managed to secure its first constituency in the state, when union minister Pon Radhakrishnan won India’s southern-most constituency, Kanyakumari, for the first time.

Interestingly, the BJP registered the victory despite an overwhelming victory by late J Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK winning 37 out of 39 constituencies in the state. Today, the ruling party is in an alliance with the ruling AIADMK, PMK and DMDK, while contesting just five seats.

While being realistic about the number of constituencies the BJP is contesting in comes as no surprise, it is the choice of these constituencies that has raised eyebrows. The party’s chosen seats are mostly localised to Southern Tamil Nadu: the coastal hamlet of Ramanathapuram, P Chidambaram’s stronghold of Sivaganga, incumbent constituency Kanyakumari, port city Tuticorin, and Coimbatore — its lone constituency in the Western region.

For instance, the BJP has chosen to field its state president, Tamilisai Soundararajan, from Tuticorin. This, despite the DMK fielding a heavyweight — Karunanidhi’s daughter and Rajya Sabha MP M Kanimozhi — from the constituency, and the district’s anti-incumbency against the BJP’s alliance partner the AIADMK, in the aftermath of the anti-Sterlite protests.

The decision has stunned political analysts. “I just can’t understand why Dr Tamilisai who potentially stood a much better chance contesting from South Madras, would want to go contest in Tuticorin, and take on another heavyweight in Kanimozhi,” said political analyst, Sumanth C Raman.

The BJP, however, is confident of its chances. It claims that the elections are an opportunity to highlight the role of institutions like the church, in engineering the anti-Sterlite protests. “The churches have engineered most protests in Tamil Nadu,” BJP spokesperson Narayana Tirupathi, “Even in the Sterlite issue, the churches did the same. Since our state president is contesting, it is a great chance for us to say that the BJP has not done anything against the public in Tuticorin.”

Another reason the BJP is focusing on Southern Tamil Nadu is that it hopes to leverage the fact that many government projects have been launched here. This includes the newly inaugurated AIIMS in Madurai and several road-and-rail projects in Kanyakumari. But the principal opposition, the DMK, is fighting this perception — claiming that voters know the difference between genuine schemes and poll gimmicks.

“If Modi had announced these schemes at the beginning of his tenure in 2014 or 2015 and has come now to inaugurate these schemes or their successful completion — of AIIMs or whatever schemes they’ve announced — people would have taken him seriously,” said DMK spokesperson, A Saravanan.

Some experts say the BJP may have been forced into contesting these seats, irrespective of poll fortunes — largely because crucial allies like the AIADMK, PMK and DMDK picked their strongholds in Northern Tamil Nadu by default. So, the question remains: will the saffron party better its tiny deposit in Tamil Nadu? Two months is all the time it takes to have that answer.

First Published:Mar 29, 2019 7:22 PM IST