Rethinking alliances

The AIADMK split should make BJP revisit its southern strategy

In July last year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held its national executive meeting in Hyderabad. The objective was to revitalise its preparedness for the Telangana Assembly elections, slated for later this year, and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP had won 29 of the 130 seats in the five southern states in 2019, while its allies performed abysmally. Fourteen months later, the ideological and electoral patchwork the BJP was busy stitching for southern India has started to look shaky.

The BJP’s Tamil Nadu ally, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), exited the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)