Today in Politics: Why Amit Shah’s Tamil Nadu visit is crucial; PM Modi in Varanasi, Madhya Pradesh

Not the Congress or the Samajwadi Party, or the Trinamool Congress.

Perhaps, the most serious challenge to the BJP’s larger ideological project has come from down south, especially Tamil Nadu, where the DMK under the leadership of Chief Minister M K Stalin has stood against the brand of cultural nationalism that the ruling party espouses and attempted to create a unified federal front against the proposed delimitation after the next Census.

In this context, next year’s Tamil Nadu Assembly elections are important for the BJP, and that is why Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s daylong visit to Chennai on Friday is crucial.

With the BJP nowhere near challenging the DMK electorally in the state, reviving its alliance with the other big Dravidian party, the AIADMK, will at least give it a chance to knock the M K Stalin-led party off its perch and that in itself will be a big boost. Weeks after the two parties formally began tie-up talks, Shah is expected to continue them. Among the conditions that the AIADMK is learnt to have placed, as reported earlier by Arun Janardhanan, are:

1. The CM candidate has to be from the party
2. It will take all final decisions related to the alliance
3. The BJP must promise not to interfere in its internal matters

In short, the AIADMK is open to getting back to the NDA high table but on its terms. How Shah deals with these issues, or the future of Tamil Nadu BJP chief Annamalai, who was viewed as one of the reasons for the alliance’s break-up almost two years ago, will be among the big questions. The Home Minister is expected to meet state BJP functionaries and RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy, Arun reports. Hours before Shah touched down in Chennai on Thursday night, there were dramatic developments in BJP ally PMK, or Pattali Makkal Katchi, whose founder S Ramadoss replaced his son Anbumani Ramadoss as the president.

The South — except Karnataka and, one can argue, Telangana — has been impervious to the BJP’s attempts to advance. In an article published in The Indian Express in December 2023, political scientist Ashutosh Varshney explained why it may be so.

“There are, thus, enough historical fragments available to keep Hindu nationalists ideologically interested in Telangana (as well as Karnataka). But there is no such historical charge in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra. Hindu nationalism falls flat there. Since the South is more developed than the North and has had a history of welfare politics for the subaltern, the narrative of roads and cooking gas also does not excite popular enthusiasm. A second feature of Hindu nationalism — its preoccupation with Hindi — also obstructs the BJP’s Southern march …,” Professor Varshney wrote.

PM Modi in Varanasi, MP

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to travel to his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi and then to Madhya Pradesh on Friday.

Around 11 am, Modi will lay the foundation stone and inaugurate several infrastructure projects worth over Rs 3,880 crore. The PM will lay the foundation stone, among other things, for several flyover projects, a highway underpass tunnel, electricity substations for districts in the Varanasi subdivision, a hostel and barracks for police personnel, sports facilities, and inaugurate government colleges.

The PM will reach Isagarh in MP’s Ashoknagar district around 3.15 pm for darshan and puja at the Guru Ji Maharaj temple. Around 4.15 pm, he is scheduled to address a public event in Anandpur Dham.

Also happening today:

Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj is scheduled to hold a rally at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan from 2 pm. Kishor, who is betting on his political outfit’s impact on the Bihar Assembly elections later this year, sat down with Santosh Singh for an interview earlier this week.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is scheduled to address the inaugural session of the ninth edition of the Global Technology Summit (GTS), India’s flagship dialogue on geo-technology, starting at 9.40 am.

Union Health Minister J P Nadda will launch the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana in Odisha on Friday. He is scheduled to arrive in Bhubaneswar around 1 pm, and then head to Cuttack to attend the event alongside Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi.

— With PTI inputs

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