Time for lotus to bloom in TN, says BJP youth wing
CHENNAI: The BJP’s youth wing held a rally in the Tamil Nadu capital on Tuesday, preparing the ground to expand its footprints in the southern state where the party has negligible presence.
Called Mission Tamil Nadu, the rally is touted as a trailer to the BJP’s attempt to capture the state, which is considered the party’s final frontier. The party is in power at the Centre and in 21 states. “The sun is setting and the leaves are falling apart,” said Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) president Poonam Mahajan. And the crowd, comprising mostly youth, responded that the “lotus will bloom now”.
The rallying call and the response were metaphorical.
The two leaves, sun and lotus are the election symbols of the ruling AIADMK, DMK and BJP.
The AIADMK is fighting a bitter internal battle for power since the death of party supremo and chief minister J Jayalalithaa last December. The party now has two factions, one of them is ruling and both are feuding over the poll symbol. The opposition DMK of K Karunanidhi hasn’t been able to take advantage of infighting in its rival’s ranks.
The AIADMK and DMK have been ruling the state almost alternately for decades, riding the personality cult of Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi that defines TN politics. But the death of AIADMK’s tallest leader has left a vacuum that the BJP is seeking to fill. Mahajan, the daughter of the late BJP national leader Pramod Mahajan, said: “The real sun that gives us energy and power is Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”
As the youth at the rally cheered, she said this is “just a trailer… the full picture will be released shortly and lotus will bloom in Tamil Nadu.”
Her choice of words — trailer and picture, informal for movies — is seen as a deliberate attempt to relate to the people of a state where celluloid and matinee idols get god-like respect and love.