Away from the rough and tumble of seat-sharing politics, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is busy preparing the ground for BJP’s gains in the South. On Tuesday morning, he led a big road show in Kerala’s Palakkad town. This was Modi’s fifth visit to Kerala this year. The roadshow lasted for nearly half an hour, with huge number of people waving to the PM from both sides of the barricaded stretch. Soon after, the Prime Minister reached Tamil Nadu’s Salem, where he addressed an election rally. This was NDA’s first show of force in Tamil Nadu. On the dais with the PM were Patali Makkal Katchi founder S. Ramadoss, his son Ambumani Ramadoss, AIADMK’s former chief minister O. Panneerselvam and AMMK leader T.T.V.Dhinakaran. In all, leaders from five parties which are part of NDA in Tamil Nadu were present.
At the Salem rally, Modi honoured 11 women as “Shakti Amma” and attacked the opposition bloc for deliberately offending Hinduism. “Every statement made by them against Hindu Dharma is well thought out and the remarks of their leaders are a calculated affront to Hindu beliefs”, he said. Modi said, “they want to destroy Shakti (divine force), but those who say such things are themselves destroyed.” Modi then raised the issues of corruption and dynastic politics in Congress and its ally DMK. He said, both the parties are two sides of the same coin. “Already, we have 5G in our country, but in Tamil Nadu, 5G stands for fifth-generation rule of the same family”, he said. Modi also became emotional at the Salem rally while remembering “Auditor V. Ramesh”, former BJP leader, who was hacked to death in his house in 2013. Modi paused for a minute, and with tears in his eyes, he gulped water from a glass, and said, “there was a time when I used to meet Auditor Ramesh whenever I visited Tamil Nadu. Ramesh is not among us today. He worked hard for the party, day and night, and he was a good orator, but he was killed. I feel his absence.”
Modi spoke about his aim to win 400 Lok Sabha seats this time, and sought the support of the voters of Tamil Nadu. It is a fact that BJP has not much influence in most parts of Tamil Nadu. Jayalalitha never allowed BJP to expand its space in this state. But Modi’s style of politics is of a different kind. He plans on a long-term basis. In the last ten years, he tried hard to touch the hearts of the people of Tamil Nadu. There are many such examples. Modi arranged a “sangam” of Kashi and Tamil Nadu, encouraged Tamilian pilgrims to visit Kashi on a regular basis. He installed Sengol in the new Parliament building. These are strong and effective symbols for communicating with the masses. And now, whenever he visits Tamil Nadu, he uses AI so that people can listen to him in Tamil, even as he speaks in Hindi. For the first time, the people of Tamil Nadu have got the opportunity to know about BJP and the work done by Prime Minister Modi. Already, DMK leaders are surprised over the turnout at his rally. The question is, whether the turnout can be translated into votes on April 19, when electors in 39 LS constituencies of Tamil Nadu will go to cast their votes.
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