Anil K Antony, the son of Gandhi family ally A K Antony, in Kerala; C R Kesavan, the great-grandson of Congress titan C Rajagopalachari, in Tamil Nadu; and Kiran Kumar Reddy, the last chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh, in Andhra Pradesh. These three former Congress leaders were inducted by the BJP last week.
The three were formally re-inducted months after they declared their departure from the Congress. None of them has much political influence in their home states, so their decision to go across the border is probably mainly for personal gain. But their worth does not lay in this.
In the midst of the political commotion in Karnataka, where the party’s challenges are exemplified by the string of leaders who have defected for other parties, the three were ceremoniously admitted by the BJP. Additionally, the defections highlight the BJP’s growing influence and the Congress’s apparent irrelevance in advance of this year’s elections in states where the two parties are the main adversaries, such as Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan in addition to Karnataka.
The frosting on the cake is the observation that even southern Congress leaders find the BJP appealing, despite the party’s continued marginalization in the area.The BJP long ago overcame its resistance to accepting members from outside the party. Many well-known leaders have been warmly welcomed during the Narendra Modi and Amit Shah period.
This is related to the BJP’s aspirations to broaden its influence outside of the Hindi-speaking region it was hitherto affiliated with. In his Vijayadashami talk, delivered in October 2014, just a few months after the party swept into power under Modi, RSS president Mohan Bhagwat summoned a number of national heroes from all spheres of society and outside of the Sangh Parivar’s traditional pantheon of gods. The BJP has been incorporating political figures from various parties at the same time that the Sangh has been absorbing these lesser-known heroes from various regions and groupings.
The 113th birthday of K. Kamaraj, a former president of the Congress who is still highly regarded in Tamil Nadu but is no longer so in the Party as a result of a falling out with Indira Gandhi, was commemorated in 2015 by the BJP.
These actions have often been planned to coincide with upcoming elections or to correlate with areas where the BJP hopes to gain ground or where a void exists.
The party has impressively profited from the gamble. Himanta Biswa Sarma, a Congress immigrant, is not just the BJP’s chief minister of Assam but also the force behind the party’s explosive growth in the whole Northeast. Suvendu Adhikari, a former adviser to Mamata Banerjee, has proven successful as the BJP face in West Bengal, overtaking the Left and Congress to become the No. 2 party in the state. Together with former BSP leader Brajesh Pathak, Jitin Prasada, the late Congress heavyweight’s son, is directing the BJP’s outreach among Brahmins in Uttar Pradesh. After Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Jyotraditya Scindia is being discussed as the next face of the BJP in Madhya Pradesh.