Analysis: In Avoiding Repeat Of Telangana, BJP Pays Price In Tamil Nadu

Word on the street is that the BJP made a monumental blunder by allowing its alliance with the AIADMK to crash in Tamil Nadu. All it would have taken to salvage it was to replace the state BJP chief. Popular perception is that the BJP is too smart to make tactical errors that will prove politically costly, but that this time, ego got the better of it.Both were carefully chosen in terms of caste and their ability to challenge and upset the way caste equations have been politically stacked up in Telangana and Tamil Nadu.

The fact is the ruling party did not want to repeat the mistake it made in Telangana. Bandi Sanjay as BJP chief in Telangana had been doing just what K Annamalai is doing now as party chief in Tamil Nadu - creating a positive buzz, going on padyatras, and dictating the political headlines and the narrative in a state where its political presence does not justify the kind of dust it has managed to kick up.Both managed to get under the skin of the state's ruling party, create situations that forced seniormost political opponents to react.

Bandi Sanjay Kumar and Annamalai Kuppuswamy may seem as different as chalk and cheese. Sanjay rose from the ranks through his early association with the RSS and the BJP's student wing ABVP. The college dropout went straight from being a municipal corporator to BJP MP in May 2019, and became Telangana BJP chief in 2020. He created such momentum for the party that there was talk the BJP could emerge as the challenger to the K Chandrasekhar Rao's BRS (Bharat Rashtra Samithi), edging the Congress out of the narrative.

Annamalai is a 2011 batch IPS officer-turned-politician who is both sharp and ambitious. He resigned from the All India Services in 2019, contested and lost the Aravakurichi seat in 2021, and yet quickly rose to become Tamil Nadu BJP chief. For the leader of a party that has skeletal presence in a state dominated by a duopoly of Dravidian parties, he managed to be noticed and heard. It is to his credit that he was even spoken of as a possible Chief Minister candidate in the not too faraway future.

Playing second fiddle to either of the Dravidian parties is not going to help the party in the long run. Besides, getting the support of either Dravidian party in parliament may not be a big challenge for the BJP, given the use of central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax and the CBI. So, the choice to plough their own furrow, in the hope of reaping political benefits.