Want PM to contest from TN, expecting over 10 MPs from state: BJP’s women wing chief

Vanathi Srinivasan, the head of the BJP’s women wing, said on Thursday that the Tamil Nadu section of the party wanted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to run from the southern state, where the BJP was beginning to challenge Dravidian hegemony as a strong third force.

“We want the Prime Minister to run from Tamil Nadu, but the party will ultimately make the final decision on that.” When the Prime Minister toured the state’s ancient temples on the eve of the dedication of the Lord Ram Temple in Ayodhya, it was evident to everybody that he was fond of them. This time, we anticipate double-digit MPs from Tamil Nadu. The Mahila Morcha president from Tamil Nadu, Srinivasan, who gained notoriety in 2021 after defeating actor Kamal Haasan in the Coimbatore South Assembly election, said that the BJP has fertile ground for elections.

In the southern state, the BJP has had difficulty winning Lok Sabha seats; it has won three LS divisions in 1998, four in 1999, one in 2014, and none in 2019.

On the occasion of Women’s Day, Vanathi told The Tribune that she was prepared to run for Tamil Nadu’s LS elections if instructed to do so by the party. After a 22-year hiatus, she said, the BJP will produce unexpected results in the state where its candidates won four MLA seats in the 2021 Assembly elections.

In Tamil Nadu, where we lack a strong local leader after the deaths of J Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi, a space is opening up for the third force. A rainbow coalition of several tiny parties, community organizations, and powerful people is being put together by the BJP. GK Vasan’s Tamil Maanila Congress is one of the five parties that now make up the NDA, according to Vanathi.

The chief of the BJP’s women’s branch said, “Women will power the BJP’s 400 seat plus target in the upcoming LS polls,” regarding the rise of women as a significant political sector.

The leader said, “We have requested that all of our state units make sure that women are actively contributing suggestions for the BJP’s Sankalp Patra on NaMo application.”

When asked about the BJP’s first list of 195 LS nominees, which only included 14% female candidates, Vanathi said, “We will see a greater share of women candidates in the subsequent list, even though reaching the 33 per cent mark right now is difficult.”

She went on to say that her biggest obstacle as a Tamil Nadu native playing a national position in the BJP, which controls the majority in the Hindi heartland, was language.

“I started learning Hindi from scratch. My biggest obstacle in the position was language, but I overcame it by always having a translator with me. I should note, however, that language is never a barrier to understanding feelings,” she said.

“Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK is anti-Sanatan, anti-Hindi, and anti-Hindu,” Vanathi said. There is no longer a need for this kind of politics.

“Giant-killer” Vanathi Srinivasan

In October 2020, Vanathi Srinivasan, 53, who was the vice-president of the party’s Tamil Nadu branch, was chosen leader of the BJP Mahila Morcha. In the 2021 votes conducted by TN, she defeated actor Kamal Haasan in Coimbatore South, becoming victorious.