As India Heads to the Polls, Modi BJP Poised for Growth in Opposition-Ruled Tamil Nadu

Modi BJP Poised for Growth in Opposition-Ruled Tamil Nadu.

Modi BJP Poised for Growth in Opposition-Ruled Tamil Nadu: In the first phase of India's massive national election process, all 39 constituencies of Tamil Nadu state went to polls on Friday.

Indian's sixth-largest state by parliament seats has been dominated by regional players who have built their support bases on ethno-nationalist ideologies.

In Tamil Nadu, 62.2 million voters will choose from 950 candidates. Nationwide, 102 constituencies will vote across 21 states in the first phase.

According to K Annamalai, Tamil Nadu BJP president and candidate for Coimbatore, Dravidian politics are over, and AIADMK and DMK are spending Rs 1,000 crore to influence voters there. The comment was made after Annamalai voted at the Uthupatti polling booth in Karur village on Friday.

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Annamalai said, "People of Tamil Nadu are with PM Modi. In Karnataka, we are expecting a clean sweep this time. The BJP will be the number one party in Telangana... Tamil Nadu this time will deliver a very big resounding result; an increase in vote share... Dravidian politics time is over."

Tamil Nadu has been at the center of the BJP's southern push to achieve Prime Minister Narendra Modi's '400 krona' goal.

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Vote for Modi, vote for the G.O.A.T!#PehlaVoteModiKo pic.twitter.com/8yAFfomD9r

— Tajinder Singh Tiwana (Modi ka Parivar) (@TajinderTiwana) April 18, 2024

Pundits, politicians, and people on the ground told CNBC that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP is on its way to tremendous growth in Tamil Nadu, which has so far served as a bulwark against what has often been called the BJP's Hindu nationalist politics.

Psephologists and political observers predict that the BJP will gain significant vote share in the state, but not necessarily parliamentary seats.

A prominent poll strategist has predicted that the BJP will get "double digit" vote share in Tamil Nadu.

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A senior researcher at New Delhi's Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) told CNBC that the BJP and its allies could win 20% of the vote in Tamil Nadu.

According to A. Sarvanan, DMK spokesperson, the BJP may gain votes this time around because they fielded more candidates, but they will not win any seats in Tamil Nadu.

According to a poll of polls by NDTV on Wednesday, the BJP will likely win just two seats in the state. The opposition INDIA, including the DMK, could win 33 seats, while AIADMK could win four.

It has never won a Lok Sabha seat from Tamil Nadu. The Lok Sabha is the lower house of India's bicameral parliament.

It is only in Karnataka that BJP has managed to build a strong voter base among the five southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.

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