The BJP is likely to be open to alliances, but will wait and watch, sources said. With Jayalalithaa no longer at the helm of affairs in the AIADMK, factionalism within the party could gain ground.
With the death of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa late on Monday night, both the Centre and two national parties — the Congress and the BJP — are keeping a close watch on the situation in Chennai.
Anticipating that the phase of Dravidian politics could be nearing an end in the state, both parties are hopeful that the situation would open up space for them. Both the Congress and BJP are sensing a political opportunity with strategists saying politics in the state—ruled by the AIADMK or DMK for the last five decades— may never be the same again.
The BJP is likely to be open to alliances, but will wait and watch, sources said. With Jayalalithaa no longer at the helm of affairs in the AIADMK, factionalism within the party could gain ground. The BJP is of the view that given the “goodwill” for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the fact that the NDA was in power at the Centre, regional parties in the state would be inclined to align with it.
Last month, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi took time out from his schedule in Uttar Pradesh to make a surprise landing in Chennai to visit Jayalalithaa, who was at the time undergoing treatment for a pulmonary infection at Apollo Hospitals. Gandhi’s visit was loaded politically, given the bitter relations his party and its president Sonia Gandhi had with Jayalalithaa for more than one-and-a-half decade.
Sources in the Congress said that Gandhi was persuaded by the newly-appointed Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president S Thirunavukkarasar, who wanted him to stand by the ailing AIADMK supremo. Thirunavukkarasar is himself a former AIADMK leader, who had stood by Jayalalithaa during the turbulent times after the demise of party founder and former chief minister, late M G Ramachandran. His aides say, he has been trying to bring Congress closer to the AIADMK, sniffing its fragmentation.
The Central government dreads instability in a state, which is considered to be the most sensitive after Jammu and Kashmir, in view of the Sri Lankan Tamil issue influencing its politics and the perennial river water dispute with neighbouring state of Karnataka. Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday said his ministry has kept extra forces ready on standby, but added that so far there has been no request from the state government.
An inaccessible chief minister, she was the supreme voice of her party. With 37 members in Lok Sabha and 13 in Rajya Sabha, her illness has upset plans for both national parties, which were banking on AIADMK’s support in Parliament.
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