The three backward castes – Vanniyar, Gounders and Thevars — dominate politics by holding powerful positions in all political parties in Tamil Nadu
While propping up AIADMK government for its own end, the BJP unit in Tamil Nadu is also parallelly trying to consolidate its support in the state by wooing leaders of political parties hailing from the numerically strong OBC community.
Aiming to create its foothold in the state’s political landscape, the BJP, with a limited presence in two to three districts in the state, is focusing on wooing leaders from the Vanniyar community in nothern Tamil Nadu, Gounders in the west and Thevars in the south.
The three backward castes – Vanniyar, Gounders and Thevars — dominate politics by holding powerful positions in all political parties in Tamil Nadu.
AIADMK, traditionally, enjoyed the support of Gounders and Thevars while the DMK dominates northern districts with the support of the Vanniyars.
A senior BJP leader said the party’s central leadership wanted the state unit to adopt the Uttar Pradesh model of caste experiment, to penetrate the state’s vote base. “Our focus is mainly on 2019 Parliamentary polls when Prime Minister Narendra Modi would seek a second term. However, there is a possibility of facing an early assembly poll if the AIADMK government falls,” the leader said.
As part of its strategy to expand its base, the leader said the party is on a spree to woo leaders from other parties, particularly from AIADMK, and seek a merger of fringe groups with it.
In western Tamil Nadu, BJP has made inroads to Coimbatore and Tirupur districts after the 1998 blast incident in the southern city. Kongunadu Jananayaka Katchi (KJK), the Gounders-based fledging political party, on Tuesday, merged with its ally BJP. KJK founder GK Nagaraj said his party’s 1.42 lakh cadres would join BJP along with him.
The merger, he said, would strengthen the BJP when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is providing corruption-free governance and ensuring implementation of schemes for the welfare of the western region.
The saffron party has its strongest base in the state at Kanyakumari district in the down south.
Minister of State for Finance Pon Radhakrishnan is the lone MP from the state who won from Kanyakumari Constituency. Already enjoying a strong support among Nadar community, the party wants to bring in the numerically strong Thevar community votes in the Southern districts.
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