BJP has its hands full down south

BJP may be riding high on its victory in North Eastern States and may be hoping to retain power in Karnataka even with a slender margin, but further forward march towards Andhra Pradesh or Tamil Nadu may not be an easy task.

Undoubtedly, the BJP did rise as a challenger to the then TRS led by K Chandrashekar Rao as demonstrated in a couple of Assembly bypolls. The state unit has been going aggressive after Bandi Sanjay took over as the TS BJP president.

But after the Munugode bypolls, the forward movement of BJP seems to have hit a roadblock. The TRS which had to take a step backward came up in a new avatar and became Bharat Rashtra Samiti and KCR threw his hat into the ring in the efforts to dislodge the BJP government at Centre.

Well, there could be several reasons for his anti-Modi stand now but the fact is that the pink party is getting converted from regional party to a party which hopes to play a prominent role in national politics.

The BJP was hopeful of influx of leaders from other parties into its fold after the Munugode bypolls. But that did not happen. It apparently lost the steam somewhere. Whether the BJP central leadership will find enough time to focus on Telangana after Karnataka bypolls remains to be seen.

With Congress, the original main opposition to BRS, failing to hold ground and being disunited, the BJP has been making a determined effort for the last couple of years to emerge as the alternative to BRS in the Assembly elections scheduled to be held later this year.

In the months to come, several central ministers would visit Telangana and Tamil Nadu to gear up the party machinery. However, dislodging the BRS is easier said than done in view of the ruling party's vast network across the state and other strengths.

When it comes to national politics, how far KCR would assume centre-stage remains to be seen. Just sloganeering of 'Desh Ki Neta' does not catapult anyone into that position.

On one hand, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is also aiming to be the focal point for anti-BJP parties, and on the other, down south, DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin is also being projected as a leader who could galvanise the anti-BJP forces to challenge the incumbent.

In a sweeping victory, the saffron party won 25 of the 28 LS seats from Karnataka in 2019, while an independent from Mandya, Sumalatha, backed by it, also made the cut. Telangana returned four BJP MPs, but the saffron party has nil representation from Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, dominated by the DMK, Congress and YSCRP respectively in the Lok Sabha. But it feels that in both Telangana and Tamil Nadu things have started looking up for the saffron party. It argues that it had won 4 Assembly seats in 2021 even when there was DMK wave and that, too, in the constituency of Dravidian stalwart and rationalist leader EV Ramasamy Periyar. The party's state unit has now set its eyes on winning 15 LS seats from Tamil Nadu in 2024.

It is also being said that Amit Shah would directly guide the Telangana unit. It certainly cannot be denied that there is an anti-incumbency wave in Telangana but then how the master strategist KCR would address this and overcome it needs to be watched. One should not and cannot underestimate his strategies.