Chennai:

Okay Annamalai, the BJP’s Tamil Nadu chief, has stated the get together’s poor displaying within the Lok Sabha election within the southern state doesn’t represent “rejection of Hindutva model of politics”.  “We are going to introspect and learns classes from what went improper. I’m sad about no victory for BJP in Tamil Nadu… we acquired many hits and misses. However Tamil Nadu outcomes should not a rejection of Hindutva model of politics,” he stated.

He additionally dismissed recommendations the get together could have fared higher had it retained ties with the AIADMK, one among two main events in Tamil Nadu’s Dravidian-focused political panorama.  The Tamil get together – additionally routed, and which additionally misplaced the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2021 Meeting ballot as a BJP ally – give up the BJP-led Nationwide Democratic Alliance final 12 months.

This was after Mr Annamalai criticised get together icons J Jayalalithaa and CN Annadurai. The under-fire BJP chief had then refused to again down and declared that going solo would strengthen the get together.

“Alliance with AIADMK did not work prior to now… no level in trying again,” he stated at this time.

Mr Annamalai additionally junked discuss of the BJP’s underwhelming present within the 2024 Lok Sabha election – the get together has, for the primary time in three polls, did not cross the 272-majority mark by itself, and should actively depend on NDA companions, together with Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar, to type the federal government.

“The Prime Minister (Narendra Modi, who will probably be sworn in for a 3rd time period Saturday) shouldn’t be weakened by a coalition. Modiji is democratic,” the Tamil chief insisted.

The BJP and its muscular nationalist mannequin has historically struggled with Tamil voters.

Within the 2014 ballot, whereas most of India was enticed by the ‘Modi wave’, Tamil Nadu was largely unmoved. The BJP acquired simply one among its 39 seats; Pon Radhakrishnan received from Kanniyakumari. In 2019 the BJP was routed – zero seats and the vote share fell to three.6 per cent.

Forward of the 2024 election Mr Modi made practically a dozen visits to Tamil Nadu and neighbouring Kerala to marketing campaign for the BJP, which had recognized the southern states (and Telangana and Andhra Pradesh) as key in serving to break the 400-seat barrier.

Nevertheless, the high-profile marketing campaign, which included Amit Shah additionally making appearances, failed to provide outcomes. The BJP was blanked in Tamil Nadu for a second straight election, though it got here a distant second in 10 seats and its vote share (together with allies) rose to 10.24 per cent.

A neighborhood ally – the Pattali Makkal Katchi – was main the Dharmapuri seat, however that was snapped up by the ruling DMK’s A Mani after an in depth struggle. That was about pretty much as good because it acquired for the BJP.

Mr Annamalai, contesting from Coimbatore, was thumped by the DMK’s Ganpathy Rajkumar by practically 1.2 lakh votes. One other high-profile BJP candidate, ex-Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, misplaced the Chennai (South) battle.

The ruling DMK, which is a member of the INDIA bloc, orchestrated a clear sweep. The get together received 22 seats, the Congress acquired 9, and smaller outfits picked up the remaining. And with the Congress additionally successful Puducherry, the DMK-led entrance accomplished a neat 40/40 this election.