The BJP is exploring the possibility of a political realignment following the stampede at a rally of film star-turned-politician Vijay in Karur, leaving 41 dead.
The party has laid the blame for the incident on the state government, led by the DMK, accusing officials of negligence – notably leaving Vijay out of its statements.
During his rallies, Vijay, who has floated the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), has been attacking both the DMK and BJP. However, with Vijay on the backfoot after the stampede, the BJP believes it could open a line to the mega star, whose popularity is evident at the huge meetings he has been holding.
“Backroom channels have been opened,” a senior BJP leader confirmed. Incidentally, after the stampede, a top-most leader in the party, who has been trying to smoothen wrinkles in the BJP’s election preparations for Tamil Nadu, spoke to Vijay on the phone.
Seeking to expand its footprint in Tamil Nadu, the BJP patched up with the AIADMK recently and the two have started alliance talks – the latest round was in Delhi – well ahead of the Assembly elections next year. However, the BJP fears that the AIADMK, which has lost several top leaders due to splits in the party, may not have the needed political heft to wrest power back from the DMK-led bloc, which includes the Congress and Left.
A senior BJP leader familiar with developments in the state said: “Tamil Nadu’s current political situation is different. Unlike in the past when the AIADMK had a charismatic leadership to eclipse the emergence of a third party, like the late Vijayakanth’s Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK), it does not have any popular leader to hold it together now.”
A BJP strategist said the party apprehended that in case the AIADMK’s vote share slides, “the TVK will rise fast as an alternative”. “Vijay’s age too is an advantage for him. He is just 51, with decades ahead of him.”
Soon after the stampede, top state BJP leaders marked their presence in Karur, including Tamilisai Soundararajan, Nainar Nagendran, and Pon Radhakrishnan. K Annamalai, the former state BJP chief, cut short a personal trip to Sri Lanka with his family, to head to the stampede site. He also announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh for each victim on behalf of the Karur district BJP unit, beating others including the DMK to it.
A day later, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman arrived in Karur. The central BJP leadership then sent an NDA fact-finding committee, including high-profile MPs such as Hema Malini and Anurag Thakur.
The message of all BJP leaders was consistent: that the state police and government bore responsibility for the tragedy.
Right-wing voices seen as aligned with the BJP, particularly on social media, lent their weight, suggesting that Vijay could face harassment from the DMK government and should join hands with the NDA.
The Tamil Nadu Police have arrested several senior TVK functionaries following the stampede, with cases filed against its state general secretary ‘Bussy’ N Anand and deputy state general secretary Nirmal Kumar, on charges of culpable homicide and crowd mismanagement. Vijay himself has not been named in any FIR, with the DMK also wary of backlash from any action against the actor.
Multiple sources close to Vijay, however, said there were no indications of the TVK chief aligning with the NDA. A senior TVK leader is believed to have reached out to Delhi, though, and a top source claimed this was “in his personal capacity”. “Probably the NDA fact-finding team was formed after that,” the leader said.
Incidentally, among those who flew to Delhi during this time was TVK publicity chief Aadhav Arjuna, after he was booked by the Tamil Nadu Police over a tweet – later deleted – that allegedly talked of “rebellion” against the state. TVK leaders said Arjuna’s visit was linked to a volleyball association meeting.
On Friday, DMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin said that the BJP and the Centre did not have “any genuine concern” for the victims of the Karur stampede, and that they were only trying to “capitalise” on it ahead of the Assembly elections.
He asked why the BJP had sent a delegation of NDA MPs to Karur, when it had not done so during the Manipur violence, or after the Morbi bridge collapse in Gujarat, or the Kumbh Mela stampede in Uttar Pradesh.
“The BJP is using the Karur stampede to find out who it can bring under its control. Irrespective of the masks that are worn, how many slaves that are conscripted, or who is enlisted afresh, as I said earlier, Tamil Nadu is out of your control,” Stalin said.
The DMK’s mouthpiece Murasoli, in its editorial Friday, slammed Vijay, particularly for his video statement challenging the state government to arrest him. Murasoli said that the video showed that “his arrogance, which is responsible for the killing of 41 persons, and the haughtiness which arose from his hunger for money, publicity mania and the desire for chair has not subsided yet”.
The central BJP leadership had earlier tried to persuade AIADMK chief E Palaniswami or EPS to re-induct senior rebels such as O Panneerselvam and T T V Dhinakaram back into the party, to ensure that there was no splintering of the AIADMK vote. However, EPS, who holds complete control over the AIADMK now, ruled this out completely.
On the ground, this means a weakening of the AIADMK’s organisational base, especially in southern Tamil Nadu.
A section of BJP leaders is of the opinion that if the TVK does not join the NDA, the party should leverage Vijay’s rise to draw splinter groups led by Dhinakaran, Panneerselvam as well as Anbumani Ramadoss’s PMK for a broader anti-DMK front.
