Almost all political parties in Tamil Nadu have a television news channel to reach the drawing rooms of their cadres and voters. But one such powerful tool is missing for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as it makes a massive push to make political inroads in the Southern state dominated by Dravidian parties.
In April, the BJP will get its own channel with the launch of Janam Tamil Television, an extension of Janam TV which serves as the mouthpiece of the saffron party and its ideological fountainhead RSS in Kerala.
The project, which is being personally monitored by Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai, is aimed at providing a counter narrative to the Dravidian ideology that has been dominating the state’s political landscape for the last five decades.
The channel will be launched in time with Annamalai’s proposed state-wide yatra to seek support for the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections by publicising the “welfare measures” of the Narendra Modi government and “exposing” the DMK government in the state.
“The yatra will be the first major assignment of the Janam Tamil TV,” a source in the know told DH, adding that a television channel that propagates the views of “nationalism” and that of the BJP is “the need of the hour” in Tamil Nadu.
BJP insiders said television is a powerful tool to reach the homes of crores of people and almost all television channels in Tamil Nadu propagate the ideals of the Dravidian movement.
“A TV channel that will not just provide news but analyses from the nationalistic perspective is necessary. And we feel Janam TV will be helpful as the party takes an aggressive stand on several issues. We need a 24/7 channel to takes our ideals to the people in a state like Tamil Nadu,” a BJP insider said.
BJP is perhaps one of the very few parties that do not have an exclusive television channel. Kalaignar TV run by the DMK’s first family serves as the mouthpiece of the ruling party, while NewsJ is the official channel of the AIADMK led by Edappadi K Palaniswami. Jaya TV, which was the mouthpiece of the AIADMK for about two decades, is now the propaganda arm of V K Sasikala and T T V Dhinakaran.
Even smaller parties like Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) have exclusive channels in Tamil Nadu. AIADMK is the most recent to have a television channel of its own. The DMK has Kalaignar TV, Mega and Vasanth TVs are owned by senior Congress leaders, Captain TV is owned by DMDK founder Vijayakant, and Makkal TV (PMK).
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