As the assembly elections hots up with the country focusing on West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, there seems to be an interesting tussle in the Union Territory of Puducherry that could change the course of politics in southern India.

Once a stronghold of Congress, the UT is currently seeing a saffron surge as the NDA alliance looks on course to create history.

With several opinion polls predicting a landslide victory for the BJP-AINRC and AIADMK alliance in the upcoming Assembly elections, there is a belief among many that a BJP rule in the territory could allow it to have an entry into Dravidian party-dominated Tamil Nadu, a state where no national-level party has held sway since the days of Kamaraj and Moopanar.

The NDA had announced N Rangaswami, former Chief Minister and President of AINRC, as the Chief Ministerial candidate and a galaxy of senior party leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigned in Puducherry.

For the Congress, the situation seems to have gone from bad to worse with CM Narayanasamy recently resigning after losing the vote of confidence. However, the party will undoubtedly unleash every weapon in its armoury to hold fort at a time when it is facing an existential crisis.

-With agency inputs