Chennai: The alacrity with which Prime Minister Narendra Modi graciously waived protocol to call on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa at her Poes garden residence on Friday appears to have renewed a political loop line between the BJP and the AIADMK in the run-up to the 2016 Assembly polls.
While Ms Jayalalithaa driving to the airport to receive Mr Modi - he was here to launch the ‘National Handloom Day’ - was not indicated in the schedule earlier, the AIADMK supremo’s gesture, amid concerns over her health issues, dramatically warmed up the bonhomie between the two leaders.
But that was not all. If Mr Modi, as he put it, “brought New Delhi to Chennai” to launch ‘India Handloom Brand’ from a sea-city whose hinterland has significantly contributed to the country’s unique textile heritage, the significance of their meeting in the larger political context was not missed by observers here.
Notwithstanding their known friendship for long, the Jayalalithaa-Modi meet sent mixed signals, baffling the BJP’s state unit the most. First and foremost, the excessive speculations about her health condition, have for now been laid to rest, with ‘Amma’ sticking to protocol to receive the PM and later hosting lunch for him at her home, during a 50-minute meeting.
Ms Jayalalithaa’s enhanced public visibility in the past few days – though she could not attend late President Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam’s funeral in Rameswaram last week on health grounds -, also comes as a reassurance that the ‘Global Investors Meet’ hosted by Tamil Nadu from September 9 is also on track. Ms Jayalalithaa also took the occasion to reiterate to Mr Modi, through a detailed memorandum, critical issues facing the state.
Second, while the BJP’s national leadership has been talking of an independent strategy for the party in Tamil Nadu for the coming Assembly polls, the meeting between the two top leaders seems to have completed the isolation of the saffron party’s local allies, notably, actor Vijayakant-led DMDK, the PMK and the MDMK. Mr Vaiko, though, had already stated that his MDMK was out of the NDA, and Dr Anbumani Ramadoss has plainly said that PMK’s ties with NDA was only at the national level.
Third, the Jayalalithaa-Modi tête-à-tête has placed the state BJP in a quandary again. Despite AIADMK going it alone in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and sweeping Tamil Nadu, it has reopened the possibility of new equations emerging closer to the polls. More important for the BJP’s central leadership now is the need to ensure AIADMK’s full support in both Houses of Parliament, particularly after Amma’s rethink on the Land Bill recently.
