Eyeing 2024 election, Nadda chairs key meet of 5 southern states in Hyderabad

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, July 9

The ruling BJP on Sunday conducted a detailed review of the 2024 Lok Sabha election preparedness in five South Indian states which mark the party’s weakest link in the electoral chain.

Party president JP Nadda chaired the meeting in Hyderabad of top party brass from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala and devised the strategy going forward. In special focus was Telangana, which also goes to the Assembly elections this year.

Of the 128 Lok Sabha seats in the five states, the BJP holds only 29 with massive expansion possibilities.

The party has no Lok Sabha MP from Tamil Nadu, which has 39 seats; Kerala (20) and Andhra Pradesh (25).

Of the 29 MPs the BJP has from the south, 25 are from Karnataka and four from Telangana.

With three recent back-to-back joinings (legendary

freedom fighter C Rajagopalachari’s great grandson CR Kesavan from Tamil Nadu, former defence minister AK Antony’s son Anil Antony from Kerala and former CM Kiran Reddy from Andhra Pradesh) the BJP hopes to bolster its presence where it is scouting for faces to field in the 2024 LS poll.

In Tamil Nadu, the BJP is planning a major poll push having led the restoration of the historic Sengol (a symbol of transfer of power in the Chola kingdom) in the new Parliament building and having conducted two successful campaigns of regional amalgamation Kashi Tamil Samagam and the Saurashtra Tamil Samagam.

The BJP has decided to follow the path of silent striving in South India as it did in West Bengal and Odisha earlier.

Following poor shows in the two eastern states in the 2014 General Election, the BJP won eight seats in Odisha in 2019, up from one in 2014, and 17 in Bengal, up from two in 2014.

“South India is the only region where the BJP is yet to establish its significant electoral presence. Slow and steady is the strategy for the region,” sources said.

At the meeting today, BJP general secretary (organization) BL Santosh was present along with party presidents of the five states units and state in-charges.

Weakest link

• South India remains party’s weakest link in electoral chain
• The party holds only 29 of the region’s 128 Lok Sabha segments

Two exceptions

• BJP’s national strike rate in the 2019 General Election was 69% (it had won 303 of the 436 seats contested)
• In South India’s five states, the strike rate had fallen to 22% with Karnataka and Telangana party’s sole saving grace