Why are senior TN BJP leaders packed off as Governors?

Appointment of 65-year-old Radhakrishnan, who cut his political teeth in the RSS, belongs to the influential Gounder community

C P Radhakrishnan, who was on Sunday named as the Governor of Jharkhand, is the third former Tamil Nadu state BJP chief to be appointed as Governor after Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a historic second mandate in 2019.

Appointment of 65-year-old Radhakrishnan, who cut his political teeth in the RSS and belongs to the influential Gounder community, is not just part of the BJP’s continuous Tamil outreach but also aimed at clearing the path for the young leadership of the party, which is making a concerted push to make political inroads in the Dravidian land.

The development has already given room to intense speculation about BJP fielding its state chief K Annamalai from Coimbatore in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, a seat that Radhakrishnan won twice and lost several times. “He would have surely asked for the seat in 2024,” a senior BJP leader said, adding that the leadership is of the impression that a young team under Annamalai is the best bet to take on the ruling DMK.

Radhakrishnan’s appointment is also aimed at wooing the Gounders as the BJP hopes the dominant community which is spread across western Tamil Nadu or Kongu region has a “soft corner” for the party and will eventually come around to stand behind it.

With Annamalai also hailing from the same caste, the BJP believes the new responsibility to Radhakrishnan will only bring the Gounders, who form the key support base of the AIADMK, closer to the party. Tamilisai Soundararajan and L Ganesan are the other two former state BJP chiefs who were sent to Telangana and Manipur as Governors in 2019 and 2021.

“One more wicket has fallen in the old guard cricket team. The field is now clear for Annamalai’s bouncers,” senior journalist R Bhagwan Singh told DH. The BJP is also attempting social engineering in the Kongu region by reaching out to Gounders through Annamalai and Arunthathiyars, a sub-section of the Scheduled Caste (SC), by projecting Union Minister of State L Murugan.

The entrepreneurial Gounders have favoured a BJP government at the Centre and the party has a structure of its own in the western districts, especially in Coimbatore and Tiruppur. The BJP also hopes to field Annamalai from Coimbatore, and Murugan from neighbouring Nilgiris, which is reserved for SC in the 2024 elections.

“We believe our growth will start from the Kongu region for which we need the confidence of the Gounders. Radhakrishnan’s elevation will make our case strong among Gounders as the state BJP chief too hails from the same community,” a senior party leader told DH.

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Since 2015, the BJP has been reaching out to specific communities in Tamil Nadu to expand its base – in 2021, the Union Government approved a proposal to group under Devendrakula Vellalars seven communities that are currently placed in Scheduled Caste (SC), a long-standing demand from the members of the community.

The appointment of Soundararajan, who lost to DMK’s Kanimozhi Karunanidhi by a huge margin in 2019 elections, was aimed at reaching out to Nadars, an enterprising business community spread across three districts of southern Tamil Nadu. In north Tamil Nadu, the BJP is also attempting at courting the Vanniyars, another dominant community.

BJP has been making a concerted effort to make inroads in Tamil Nadu with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah leading the pack. From a month-long Kashi Tamil Sangamam celebrating the age-old civilizational ties between Tamil Nadu and Varanasi to Modi praising rich Tamil literature at every given opportunity, and a host of Union Ministers air dashing to the state are an integral part of BJP’s efforts in the state.

The BJP is attempting to embrace the Dravidian identity, a conscious move aimed at shedding the Hindi-Hindutva image that the party acquired over the decades.