Tamil Nadu BJP plans month-long ‘Vetrivel yatra’ to strengthen party ahead of Assembly polls

BJP’s most successful political weapon – yatra in the name of god – will make its debut next month in Tamil Nadu, where the party has little presence.

Titled ‘Vetrivel Yatra’, the month-long tour to be undertaken by the top brass of the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP, hopes to capitalise on a controversy owing to a YouTube channel uploading a derogatory video on Kandha Sashti Kavasam, a devotional song dedicated to Lord Murugan.

Though the Tamil Nadu Police has arrested members of the YouTube channel and the investigation is on, the BJP has kept the issue alive. The yatra will cover all six abodes where Lord Murugan, considered a native God of Tamils, is believed to have lived and are spread across the state.

Tamil Nadu BJP President L Murugan will launch the yatra on November 6 from Tiruttani, one of the six abodes located 90 km from here, which will end at Thiruchendur in Thoothukudi district, 640 km from here, in Thoothukudi district on December 6.

“The yatra will be a turning point in Tamil Nadu politics,” said Murugan.

The party feels the ‘Vetrivel Yatra’ will help it reach out to the masses ahead of the crucial assembly polls due in the first half of 2021. The BJP has been making concerted efforts to project it as an alternative to the Dravidian majors – DMK and AIADMK – by tapping into every major community and attempting a social engineering formula.

“The Vetrivel Yatra is aimed at thanking people of Tamil Nadu who supported the BJP’s Vel Pooja call by conducting poojas in their houses on August 9. This yatra will remind everyone that Tamil Nadu is a spiritual land and any insult on Lord Murugan will not be tolerated. We will send across the message that the BJP will always support spiritual causes,” BJP Vice-President and ex-IPS officer K Annamalai told Deccan Herald.

Party leaders said that the yatra, which has been a successful method devised by the BJP to reach out to people, will help galvanise party cadre and also send across a message to other political parties that the saffron outfit “cannot be taken for granted” anymore in the state.

BJP state general secretary KT Raghavan stated that the yatra would create awareness among the people to not believe the “nefarious designs” of parties like DMK that try to portray Tamil Nadu as a place that is against worshipping gods.

“It is not about just a YouTube channel; it is about people behind the channel who are said to be connected to the DMK. This yatra will establish the fact yet again that Tamil Nadu is a spiritual land. We will also send across the message that anything that hurts the sentiments of Tamil people will not be tolerated by the BJP,” Raghavan told Deccan Herald.

However, Prof. Ramu Manivannan feels the BJP’s “misplaced northern strategy” of a yatra in the name of a God will lead to resurgence of the Dravidian movement.

“The BJP is fighting the Dravidian ideology and it is clear in its action, but it should also keep in mind the love that people of Tamil Nadu have for Lord Murugan is much more than what the party may think. It would not do any good for the BJP in terms of its support base, but might lead to a resurgence of the Dravidian movement,” Prof Manivannan, Head of the Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Madras, told DH.