Bihar rout may upset BJP’s Tamil Nadu plan

CHENNAI: BJP's gameplan of putting together a caste alliance in Tamil Nadu ahead of the assembly elections in 2016 to emerge as an alternative to the Dravidian majors may come unstuck if Bihar results are any indication. BJP's Bihar allies, Hindustani Awaam Morcha, LJP and RLSP, representing dalits and backwards, failed miserably.

In recent times, BJP leaders have been in talks with a prominent Dalit caste Devendrakula Vellalars, Yadavas and a section of the dominant Thevar community in Tamil Nadu. On Sunday, Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan called on VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan at the latter's residence ostensibly to invite him for a wedding, but there was a buzz in political circles that BJP was trying to woo yet another Dalit caste group that VCK represents.

Dalits in TN constitute more than 21% of the electorate. "Dalits are a sizeable chunk of the voters in TN but they are fragmented and scattered in various parties. BJP can at the most win over a section of them but it will be an uneasy alliance since BJP is also wooing the dominant Thevars and Vanniyars who have been antagonistic to the Dalit caste groups that the party is trying to rope in," says political commentator G Satyamurthy.

Taking a different view, Madras University political science professor R Mannivannan says caste will not be a major factor in the Dravidian heartland. "The Bihar poll outcome has marked BJP out as communal and fundamentalist. Despite the caste factor, secularism is a strong issue in that state and this has been proved," he said, reiterating that caste cannot be an overriding factor in TN and BJP strategy built around it will not yield dividends.

A section of the BJP's leadership is already realizing this and has proposed that instead of a caste-based approach to alliances, it would be more realistic to strategise for each region within the state.