The South, mostly, is a no-go area for the BJP that claims to be the strongest national party today. Evidence is also in the way the party is getting sidelined in Telangana, where it had raised some hopes about being the main challenger to the regional BRS party. The resignation of a BJP national executive member and prominent actress – Vijayashanthi – from the party to join the Congress is reflective of the general mood in the state, where elections are set for later this month. While the BJP suffered several such defections in recent times there, the Congress stock in the state is rising. The Congress might not capture the state this time too, but would emerge as the principal opposition if the present trends are any indication. In between, the Modi establishment suspectedly attempted to woo chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao by going soft on his daughter who was a main suspect in the Delhi liquor scam. This disappointed those who pinned their hopes on the BJP as a credible alternative to the BRS.
In state after state across the South, the BJP is groping in the dark, except for Tamil Nadu where it found a young and energetic leader in Annamalai, who is making some waves. Even then, the strong Dravidian sentiments in Tamil Nadu are generally against a party of the Hindi “Aryan” belt. The AIADMK has parted company with the BJP in Tamil Nadu, which should be another constraint for the party there. In Andhra Pradesh, the BJP is a non-entity. The polity is split between the ruling YSRC and the TD-Jana Sena alliance. In Kerala, so far, a Left bastion and half the population being non-Hindu, the BJP could never raise its head count. Attempts by the party to woo the Christians, who are generally not anti-Hindu, have also failed to click as the state party leadership is bedevilled by groupism.
In Karnataka, the BJP received a hit below the belt in the last assembly polls, when it was routed from power by the Congress through a fancy manifesto. To take on the ruling Congress, it is now tying up with the JD-Secular of ageing Deve Gowda. This might help the alliance win several seats in the Lok Sabha polls. Yet, by hoisting a weakling like Basavaraj Bommai as chief minister, the BJP was perceived to have lost much of its ground in Karnataka. All these strengthen feelings that the BJP central leadership and its present chief JP Nadda are at their wits’ end when it comes to strengthening the saffron party in the South.