Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been actively seeking to bolster his party’s influence in the southern states of India, comprising Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.
He has made a significant number of visits to these states, totaling 146 from May 26, 2014, to April 17, 2024. Among these visits, 59 occurred in the last three years alone.
During his first term, Modi’s visits to the southern states increased from 14 percent to 18 percent in his second term.
However, despite these efforts, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faced challenges in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, failing to secure any seats in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala.
In Karnataka, the BJP won 25 Lok Sabha seats with 51 percent of the votes, while in Telangana, it secured four seats with 19.65 percent of the votes.
Of Modi’s 146 visits to the South, 64 were official, and 56 were on behalf of the BJP. The party has mobilized thousands of volunteers and utilized social media extensively for targeted campaigns to gain significance in the southern states.
Expanding BJP’s presence in the southern states is crucial for Modi’s ambition to secure a larger parliamentary majority. However, the South has historically shown resistance to the party’s Hindu nationalist narrative.
Modi has set an ambitious target for the upcoming elections, aiming for his party-led alliance to surpass the 400-seat mark in the Lok Sabha, with the BJP alone winning 370 seats.
This goal may hinge largely on the performance in the southern states, where BJP’s struggles have been evident.
Modi knows that BJP is going to lose some seats in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. So he wants to compensate for that loss from South.
BJP is going to gain a lot in Andhra Pradesh due to the alliance with TDP and Janasena. BJP hopes that Annamalai’s magic has worked in TN. It is expected to do well in Telangana also.
But, in any which ways, 400 seats for BJP now looks like a distant dream.
