Chennai: Their confidence appears to stem from the fact that they are organisationally strong at about 60,000 polling booths across the state. This no mean task was achieved immediately after the massive membership drive and when BJP invited applications from aspirants keen on contesting the Assembly election, the state leadership was pleasantly surprised to receive over 3,000 applications during the two-day recent affair.
Kamalalayam — BJP state headquarters here — had not received such overwhelming response from its cadres during the 2011 Assembly elections. This time, several aspirants have expressed desire to contest from more than four constituencies. In the communally sensitive Kanyakumari district, for instance, the BJP cadres do not want alliance with any party but hope that both the AIADMK and DMK would contest causing polarisation of minority votes. “Our party will stand to gain in Nagercoil and Kanyakumari constituencies, where we have pitched high hopes. If both the Dravidian majors contest the votes of the minorities would get polarised and this would turn advantageous to the BJP, which could consolidate the Hindu votes,” a BJP worker who been in the party for over two decades, says.
“This response from our cadres for party tickets, this time is encouraging. The mood is upbeat. The party is determined to enter the Assembly this time in a big way,” BJP senior and Union minister of state for road transport, highways and shipping Pon Radhakrishnan said. Asked about his party’s efforts to revive alliance with DMDK and PMK, he said, “Talks may happen at different level. We are totally involved in election work.”
“Alliance or not our party workers are keen on testing our strength. Probably, the presence of BJP government under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has enthused our state unit to put in collective efforts to win,” claims state vice president M. Chakravarthy. As the stakes are high for the BJP this time, the party high command is likely to nominate several seniors so as to get impressive number of legislators.
