New Delhi [India], February 15 : Ahead of the upcoming assembly elections, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram on Sunday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was a "drag" in Tamil Nadu politics, while claiming that its national brand of politics doesn't resonate with people here.
"The BJP is a drag as far as Tamil Nadu politics is concerned. While the BJP has succeeded in many parts of India, its brand of politics does not resonate with people in the state. And their brand of politics doesn't gel well with Tamil Nadu. BJP is only looked at from a national prism. And in the national prism, their actions are not something which gels well with the average person from Tamil Nadu," Karti told ANI.
Chidambaram said that the BJP's presence in Tamil Nadu was confined to a particular socio-economic class, as it largely remained absent from rural areas. He said that the BJP's support was confined to "urban Brahmins and some city slickers".
"The BJP is a drag in an alliance. In fact, the AIADMK, in my opinion, doesn't benefit from an alliance with the BJP. In fact, some votes the ADMK would normally receive are not going to it because it is in an alliance with the BJP. You're mistaking the BJP from a North Indian perspective of having these karyakartas everywhere, structure and all those things. And in Tamil Nadu, that's not there. Once you leave the large city, you enter a village area, and you will not find any BJP workers or sympathisers there. Even in urban areas, it is confined to a certain socioeconomic class. So it's not a widespread, deep-rooted party in Tamil Nadu," he added.
On the issue of the Congress's standing in Tamil Nadu, Karti expressed confidence in the party's strong position.
"Rahul Gandhi beats Narendra Modi in Tamil Nadu. I don't know about any other state, but in Tamil Nadu, Rahul Gandhi will beat him hands down. Because the BJP's brand of Hindi Hindutva politics finds very little purchase in Tamil Nadu outside this small socio-economic group," he said.
The 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly will go to the polls in the first half of 2026. In 2021, the DMK secured 133 seats, leading the Secular Progressive Alliance to victory, while the AIADMK won 66 seats.