Beware the Ides of March

Speculation is rife the Dravidian land that the poll announcement would be made sometime in March. Action is surely guaranteed in the State, which has a shaky ruling party and a dormant opposition one ideally a ripe situation for realignment of political forces

Narendra Modi’s recent whirlwind trip to the two States of southern peninsula Kerala and Tamil Nadu could not have come at a more opportune time. As the local media reported, the Election Commission officials led by its CEC, Nasim Zaidi, are expected to visit Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry between February 9 and 11. This has led to speculation in the Dravidian land that the poll announcement would be made sometime in March.

In Kerala, where Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and his son are allegedly neck-deep in the solar scam, the Prime Minister spent a little time before moving across the border to Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, to address a huge audience, sounding the first poll bugle by BJP. This textile city has been one of the supportive locations for the saffron party, where their brand of politics resonated and had its repercussions, from the time of the ill-fated assassination attempt on L K Advani in 1998.

This time around, in his speech, Modi reserved his ire for Congress which he accused of sabotaging the NDA government’s initiatives of ‘inclusive development’ of the country’s youth, who are 65 per cent of the country’s population. Showcasing his ‘Make in India’ and ‘Start up in India, Stand up in India’ schemes, which are aimed at harnessing the young Indian’s entrepreneurial potential, Modi accused the opposition of raising and diverting the national attention towards contentious issues like the recent suicide of the Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula.

“In the last two years, did they have anything to pinpoint against us as corruption charges, something which was rampant during their rule,” he enquired with the audience, accusing the opposition of not being able to digest the meteoric rise of a ‘chai wala’ who now is the nation’s Prime Minister. Carefully reaching out to the farmers, he reminded them of how the urea shortage had put them in severe misery during the UPA rule. Coinciding with Modi’s arrival in the State, the Dravidian parties too seem to have rushed to get their act together.

While the party headquarters of both the DMK and the AIADMK are seeing a record number of aspirants vying for party tickets, the purported announcement of Chief Minister Dr J Jayalalithaa about ‘stricter’ yardsticks for selecting candidates has raised eyebrows. Party functionaries of the Amma outfit fear that half of the sitting MLAs may not be re-nominated, while 12 out of the existing 28 cabinet ministers may face the axe.

With the matinee idol Vijayakanth still refusing to toe the line firmly, the estranged ally PMK led by Anbumani Ramadoss, its CM candidate, is singing its own tune. In a recent comment made at a public meeting, Anbumani dismissed the possibility of a ‘national alliance’ in Tamil Nadu, even going to the extent of saying that his party is the bigger one in the State when compared to BJP.

Already, the prevalent feeling at present is that the saffron party may yet have to wait for the curious alignments and re-alignments of the smaller political parties in the state to settle down, before it concludes its route map. Action is surely guaranteed in the State, which has a shaky ruling party and a dormant opposition one – ideally a ripe situation for realignment of political forces. It is too early to say, though, when and how it will happen.