MODI JI CONNECTED HEART-TO-HEART WITH PEOPLE OF TAMIL NADU: ANNAMALAI

Q: What is the peculiarity of South India that it has still been a difficulty, a challenge for the BJP to penetrate?

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A: I can't speak for other states, but I can speak definitely for Tamil Nadu because BJP came very late to Tamil Nadu. Jana Sangh, the earlier Jana Sangh was not as strong as Jana Sangh of other parts of our country because Dravidian movement was very strong. And in 1980 when BJP formed as a party and even our first MLA Velayudham in 1996, he contested in some other symbol and he became an MLA. So if you look at the politics of Tamil Nadu per se, BJP came into the state very late. So Vajpayee ji time, first level of growth we saw. And Modi ji's time, the second level of growth we are seeing. Only two spots. By the time the Dravidian parties, DMK was in power four times, AIADMK was in power three times, by the time they had a head start. They had very tall leaders, more grassroots-oriented.