The BJP has been accused of supporting superstar Rajinikanth for his own benefit.
Three years ago, parties in Tamil Nadu watched from the sidelines as superstar Rajinikanth uttered his political war cry, some nervously, some with anticipation and some with skepticism. But perhaps no party other than the BJP watched Rajini with great interest, after all, the actor’s “spiritual politics” was closely aligned with that of the national party. Also in the past, Rajini has expressed his support for BJP’s policy, be it river interconnection, demonetization or even passive support for the National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The superstar even went so far as to compare Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Interior Minister Amit Shah to Krishna and Arjuna.
But now that Rajinikanth is withdrawing from electoral politics even before formally launching his party, his withdrawal will affect the game plan of the BJP, which has been accused by the opposition of supporting the actor for its own benefits.
RK Radhakrishnan, Associate Editor at Frontline, says that if Rajini opts out of politics it would be a loss for BJP. “Rajini Makkal Mandram is not disappointed, nor is Tamilaruvi Manian (who was appointed Rajinikanth’s party supervisor). The disappointed people are the BJP, the BJP in Tamil Nadu in particular and those who forced him into politics, like (Thuglaq editor) Gurumurthy, who has been with him on a daily basis trying to tell him that he has to go into politics. The only people who have known him since he started in December 2017, when he was forced to make this announcement, have been people on the right. They are the ones who are disappointed, ”says Radhakrishnan.
BJP’s long-term plan and 2021
The lead journalist explains that the BJP’s game plan in 2021 was to use Rajini to split the votes of the DMK alliance just like the Makkal Nala Kootani or the Popular Welfare Front (PWF) in 2016. In the previous Assembly elections , the PWF, which made up of the left-wing parties, the VCK, MDMK together with the DMDK had obtained a combined 6% share of the vote. This, Radhakrishnan says, secured a victory for AIADMK. “The difference between (AIADMK) winning and (DMK) losing was only 1% of the votes,” he observes, “Exactly what they wanted Rajini to do but with a higher percentage. Because if Jayalalithaa isn’t there, obviously DMK could get more votes than AIADMK. They wanted to remove neutral votes from people who were possibly voting for the DMK. ”
However, another high-level journalist, who did not want to be named, told TNM that BJP was not thinking about 2021, but was playing a long-term game in Tamil Nadu. “The BJP hoped to consolidate Hindutva’s soft vote bank by 2024 and 2026,” says the journalist, pointing to a story in Tamil Nakkheeran magazine that claims the BJP aimed to split the AIADMK following the planned release of the close associate of Jayalalithaa, VK Sasikaa from prison in January. The article goes on to claim that the BJP would involve Senior Deputy Minister O Panneerselvam, who rebelled against Sasikala, while retaining NDA allies such as the PMK and DMDK. “The BJP’s plans to unite many common forces will not work now,” says the journalist. Many analysts believe that the BJP clearly knew that it was not going to savor victory in 2021, but they were hoping that Rajinikanth’s vote bank would eventually be transferred to its kitty.
Radhakrishnan says that the BJP’s reluctance to endorse Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami as the face of the alliance’s CM stems from Rajinikanth and his political plans. “It is because Rajini was part of this grand scheme of things that the BJP found it very difficult to announce another person as CM because it seems they have already had this conversation that someone of Rajini’s choice will be CM in Tamil Nadu. And that might well have been the case if he had stayed. You take a part of the PMK, you take a part of the AIADMK led by OPS, and then you join the BJP, and then you have a viable coalition.
However, the BJP denies trying to shore up Rajinikanth, and party spokesman and actor Khushbu Sundar called it a bizarre statement from the opposition. “We never spoke on those lines. We maintained that Rajinikanth was welcome to join the BJP, so we have never claimed it. We are not pressuring Mr. Rajinikanth. We have said that anyone is welcome to join the BJP, if Rajini wanted to join the BJP, we would have liked to have him on board, ”says Khushbu. He adds that Rajini’s health was the most important thing and that his exit from the political scene would be a disappointment for all of Tamil Nadu.
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