Written by K Nageshwar
In the BJP, everything seems to be seen from a political prism. The choice of the Vice-Presidential candidate, too, cannot be without consummate political calculations. Since 2014, despite occasional reverses, the BJP could demonstrate a formidable strength in Northern and Western India. Of late, the party is trying very hard to consolidate their voter base in Eastern India and penetrate the not-so-favourable political terrain of South India. The Presidential nominee was chosen from Odisha in the East, and now, the Vice-Presidential nominee, C P Radhakrishnan, is from the South – for obvious reasons.
Tamil Nadu and Telangana are the two aspirational states for the BJP in South India, with Kerala not showing any promising possibilities despite its expanding vote share. Karnataka, on the other hand, is where the BJP already has a very strong presence.
C P Radhakrishnan, who has been associated with the RSS from an early age, is a clever choice, because the state he belongs to, Tamil Nadu, goes to the polls next year. Though the BJP on its own has a limited vote share in a state that fiercely resists its Hindi-Hindutva ideological push, the party hopes to do better in an alliance with the AIADMK.
C P Radhakrishnan belongs to the OBC Gounder caste, which more or less rallies politically behind the AIADMK. E Palaniswami, the party’s chief and the former chief minister, belongs to the same community.
Though the OBC credentials of Radhakrishnan are not going to be a big element in Tamil Nadu as Dravidian politics are centred around marginalised castes and social justice, it would certainly further the BJP’s inclusive Hindutva narrative in the North, where the mandalisation of politics is a big factor.
C P Radhakrishnan represented the Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency in Parliament. Coimbatore is a part of Kongu Nadu region of Tamil Nadu. Several leaders of the BJP supported the demand for a separate state of Kongu Nadu. Hindutva politics has a relatively stronger appeal in Coimbatore compared to the rest of the state. Radhakrishnan was elected in the wake of a bomb blast in Coimbatore during the electioneering of L K Advani.
The BJP is being accused of undermining Tamil sentiment with its Hindi supremacist position. The party is trying hard to make its presence felt in the Dravidian heartland with gestures like placing the Sengol, the symbol of the Chola dynasty, in the new Parliament building. The BJP also tried in vain to manoeuvre with Rajinikanth and O Panneerselvam (OPS). It made an audacious bid under the aggressive leadership of Annamalai to get a political foothold on its own. As all these attempts failed, the BJP came back to the AIADMK to remain relevant in Tamil politics, which is a politics that challenges mainstream North Indian Hindi political rhetoric.
The southern states are also complaining of political marginalisation and economic discrimination, a trust deficit that is expected to widen with the ensuing delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies. The BJP, therefore, is attempting to court voters in South India with such symbolic gestures like choosing the Vice-Presidential nominee from the region.
The BJP burnt its fingers with the choice of Jagdeep Dhankhar. The party chose him due to his Jat credentials, a community it had angered with its controversial farm laws. Dhankhar, however, proved to be a big embarrassment subsequently, despite his earlier subservience to the Prime Minister. A non-controversial and affable leader like C P Radhakrishnan will, on the other hand, serve the BJP without upsetting the Opposition too much, all the more important given the turbulence in politics and Parliament.
The writer is a former professor of journalism at Osmania University, Hyderabad, former MLC and a political analyst
