The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Blending caste with faith, BJP tries to open a space in Tamil Nadu
J OT HIP AND IAN AND SHIVA KUMAR, two young men who run a small office a couple of kilometres from the Saint Gobain glass factory, off the Chennai-sriperumbudur highway, couldn’t agree if sitting Lok Sabha MP and DMK candidate DM Kathir Anand would retain his seat in Vellore, a neighbouring constituency.
Kathir Anand, 49, is the son of Tamil Nadu Water Resources Minister Durai Murugan, a DMK veteran, who entered the state Assembly in 1971, and is a 10time MLA. But this time, Kathir faces a tough battle and there are many factors at play — a big one being Prime Minister Narendra Modi and how his combative nominee and state BJP president K Annamalai has changed the party’s image in the state.
The BJP and its pronounced presence in the state is not lost on Jothi Pandian. “We are Vanniyars and our vote is for the Pattali Makkal Katchi (symbol: mango), which has tied up with BJP… What I personally believe is for us Vanniyars to prosper, Hindu religion has to survive and thrive,” he says, placing his community in the rubric of religion.
It is not the first time that the S Ramadoss-led PMK, which represents the Vanniyars and demands reservation for them, has allied with the BJP; in the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2021 Assembly elections too, it was in an AIADMK-LED alliance with the BJP.
Vanniyars have a significant presence in north Tamil Nadu in parliamentary constituencies such as Vellore, Arakkonam, Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri and Tiruvannamalai. Jothi Pandian’s understanding of society structures, and his locating of the Vanniyar caste within the Hindu fold may appear quite simple at one level. But such social engineering that BJP is seen to be attempting in Tamil Nadu, the last frontier for the party which is perceived by many in the state as anti-tamil and anti-minorities, requires remarkable understanding of the Tamil culture, society and history.
The cementing of caste identity with religious identity and riding two horses at the same time is viewed as a key BJP strategy in Tamil Nadu. Not doing so risks the BJP being captive to its image of being a ‘pro-brahmin’, upper caste-dominated party. But whether this outreach to the middle castes will help it, or be counter-productive given the distinct social reform movement in the state, is a difficult question to answer.
The BJP has been trying to find space in Tamil Nadu ever since the demise of AIADMK’S star leader J Jayalalitha, who eventually inherited the political legacy of MG Ramachandran.
Indeed, none of the Dravidian parties have in the past offered support to the BJP’S core Hindutva ideology — it was always tactical, says Ramu Manivannan, an academician, who has worked in Delhi University for almost 15 years, and was head of the department of politics in Madras University.
“The decline of Congress over the last decade, transition in political leadership in Dravidian parties here — BJP foresaw all this. It systematically started preparing for many years now,” he said.
In the absence of an alliance with AIADMK, the three-way split in the Mgr-founded party — Edappadi Palaniswami, O Panneerselvam and TTV Dhinakaran (Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, a BJP ally now )— definitely doesn’ t hurt the
BJP. “There is a vacuum in Tamil Nadu.. which BJP sees. But it has under estimated the resistance offered by the civil society ,” he said.
Having said that, man ivan nan agrees that ca ste continues to play a dominant role in voting behaviour. “The Dravidian social reform movement is one of its kind, laudatory and has served the people well. the flip side is, everything gets tucked under the carpet. a lot of things, especially accountability, get buried,” he said. This is where spaces open up for mod ito exploit — as he did in Vellore on Wednesday. “DMK has the first copyright on corruption ,” mo di alleged,and claimed that thousands of crores of rupees sent by the Centre gets consumed by DMK’S corruption.
What also helps thebjp on the ground is the work silent ly undertaken by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh cadre. Over the last five years, the number of RSS shakhas in the state have almost doubled to 2,400, say sources in the RSS.
MP Mariappan, a Dalit RSS worker, who travelled 40 km to Vellore Kottai (fort) from Var ad ha red dip alli pan ch a ya tin the district, to attend Modi’s rally on Wednesday morning, said, “We are not in the forefront. We work quietly behind the scenes.”
The traditional voting pattern of Dalits is changing, Mariappan claimed. “Earlier, SC votes in my panchayat went only to the DMK. Now ,600 out of 1,140 dal it votes in my panchayat are for the BJP.” He speaks Hindi quite fluently and has worked in sahara np uri nut tar Pradesh and Dehradun in Uttarakhand.
Indeed, for any party to win, SC votes are critical. As per the 2011 Census, the Scheduled Caste or Dalits accounted for 21.85 per cent of Vellore district’ s population. While Var ad ha red dip alli panchayat may not be representativeof other villages; it, however, suggests possibilities for the BJP.
Attacking the DMK, Modi said the party has become a “one family company” — a theme that he uses to club the DMK and its key ally Congress in the same bracket. “To contest from DMK, you need to have these three criteria: family politics, corruption, anti- tamil culture. DMK has trapped its youth in old politics; hence, the tn youth is unable to step forward ,” he said, canvassing for BJP and its alliance partners in north Tamil Nadu.
In Vellore, AC Shanmugam, who has a large education business, was originally with the AIADMK, and later founded the New Justice Party, is the BJP candidate.a mud ali ar by ca ste, he had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and polled 4,77,199 votes, but lost to DMK’S Kathir Anand by a narrow margin of 8,141 votes. The constituency has a strong presence of Vanniyars, Mudaliars and Muslims.
Muslims accounted for 10.54 per cent, and Christians 2.82 per cent, of the population in Vellore district, according to the 2011 Census. together with dal its, they made up 35.21 per cent of Vellore district’s population in 2011.
While van ni ya rs are said to account for a large percentage of the population in north Tamil Nadu districts, there are no reliable estimatesof the size of the community in the absence of a caste census. So is the case with other big communities such as Mudaliars.
But, the Tamil Nadu government had previously tried to provide 10.5 per cent special internal reservation to Vanniyars within the 20 per cent quota for Most Backward communities; this was quashed by the Supreme Court in March 2022.
Muslim voters, who are in large numbers in Vaniyambadi and am bur assembly constituencies within th eve ll ore parliamentary seat, believe Kath ir An and will win. their votes, they said, will go to the strongest candidate against the BJP.
A congress leader, who did not wish to be named, however, said Kathir Anand faces considerable anti-incumbency. An uphill task lies ahead for him, the leader said, adding that votes will be largely for the party, not necessarily the candidate. the party is also counting on SC votes.
In 2019, while the elections were scheduled to be held on April 18, they were rescinded by the President after the Election Commission reported use of money power to influence voters. The Income-tax department had recovered huge cash from an alleged associate of du r aim u rug an, father of Kathir Anand, who was in the fray. Polling was then held on August 5, 2019, the day Article 370, was abrogated.
In his public address, besides pitching for Shanmugam, Modi also sought votes forth end a candidatesin other north tamil na du constituencies including Sowmiya Anbumani, daughter in-law of pmkfo under ra mad oss, and wife of Anbumani Ramadoss, who has been fielded from Dharmapuri; K Balu of PMK who is pitted against DMK’S S Jagathrakshakan, the sitting MP; and K Asuvathaman who is contesting from Thiruvannamalai.