Tamil Nadu: Is BJP applying Jayalalithaa formula to punch DMK?

Tamil Nadu: The latest development which has caught the attention of political observers in Tamil Nadu, apart from the expected discussions on Covid-19 status, is the sudden aggression that BJP has begun showing in the local political affairs. An exhaustive analysis published in Tamil daily Dinamani touches a few notable points.

Reinterpreting the above report, it means that despite portraying to the rest of the country as a party which is the sole Opposition unit taking on the AIADMK government, the DMK has not calculated the 'potential troublemaking 'ability of the saffron party. Over the past six months or so, a few party leaders and quite recently a serving MLA from a prominent constituency in Chennai, KK Selvam were wooed and won over by BJP, rather successfully. The technique was to pick dissidents one at a time and promise them what they are looking for.

It is also pointed out that Jayalalithaa used the same technique with Vijayakanth's MLAs when she was the CM between 2006-11 and managed to splice away one-third of its lawmakers without attracting the Anti-Defection Act. Pundits wonder whether the BJP, another strong cadre-based party is chipping away at the receding fortunes of rational party DMK, which is the best regional party with a committed vote bank and state-wide support as of today. The point to be noted is that the State elections are due in the next eight months.