Despite Telangana win, Congress should worry about BJP in the South

The Telangana win for the Congress party is like a log that one desperately clings to after a boat-wreck. But instead of introspecting so that the collapse does not happen again, it is busy blaming the boat and praising the log. Dozens of Congress leaders and leading influencers immediately took to social media to denigrate everything north of the Vindhyas as less educated and civilised than the South.

The SOUTH!

— Karti P Chidambaram (@KartiPC) December 3, 2023

Hence proved - South is aware and North is still lagging far behind

— Anita Jacob (@AnitaJacobJain1) December 3, 2023

It seems that the Congress has decided to cede north, east and west Bharat. The party first disowned the biggest game changer of contemporary India, liberalisation, by trying to sideline the legacy of its non-Gandhi, non-Nehru prime minister, PV Narasimha Rao. It then ceded the Hindu space by wanton minority appeasement. Then it ceded the nationalistic space, questioning India’s surgical strikes and taking China’s line on Doklam, Galwan and Pangong Tso conflicts. Now, frustrated by another spate of electoral rout, the Congress has started denigrating the North. It started from the very top. During his Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi suggested in Kerala that those in the South were interested in issues and were not superficial like north Indians.

That they’re treating South India as some sort of consolation while disparaging the Hindi heartland should reveal to all Indians that, one day, the South too shall be disparaged.

After all, this alliance is led by someone who disparaged the people of Amethi. pic.twitter.com/CvSKs2dT1m

— Kartikeya Tanna (@KartikeyaTanna) December 4, 2023

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But here are some ground realities that the Congress should consider before falling into a false lull that its ground is relatively safer in south India and the BJP is weak there. The BJP is the single biggest party in south India in Parliament. It has 29 MPs from the South compared with the Congress’s 28, followed by DMK’s 23. At the state level, the BJP increased its tally in the Telangana Assembly from one to eight seats and doubled its vote share from 7 per cent in 2018 to 14 per cent. This is despite the speculation that the BJP did not put all its might in the state and decided to go slow against the BRS to keep the doors of an alliance open in 2024. If the BJP got four seats in Telangana in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, it could substantially increase its tally there in the next general elections. In neighbouring Andhra, the BJP has the chance to fill in a political vacuum. Chief Minister Jagan Reddy’s popularity is on the wane and both he and his rival TDP are open to an alliance with the BJP. Besides, the BJP could win a few seats on its own if it can get a leader like Pawan Kalyan or somebody promising from its own stable. In Tamil Nadu, the party is on the rise. While the Congress is almost out entirely dependent on its ally DMK in the state, the BJP led by the young and increasingly popular K Annamalai could at least get it a handful of seats even without any alliance. In Kerala, where the Congress got 15 of the 20 seats on its own in 2019 with Rahul Gandhi contesting from Wayanad, the Left will be more circumvent about ceding ground this time. And the BJP could be just one social coalition away from a few seats. Large sections of Christians are already angry with both the Left and the Congress pandering to extremist Muslim elements and the protest against love jihad is rising from the church communities. Karnataka has been the BJP’s bastion in the South. While it lost the 2023 elections to Congress, one must remember that the BJP swept the 2019 general elections from the state — it got 25 of the 28 seats — in spite of there being a Congress-JDS government running the state at that time. Finally, the Congress’s Telangana victory may prove pyrrhic. It has already made its I.N.D.I.A. alliance partners, chiefly regional parties, extremely wary. The Left, DMK, TDP, YSR Congress and the JDS will be far less accommodative fearing cannibalisation of their voter base by the Congress. Most of the Opposition allies have already started making angry noises about how arrogantly and dismissively the Congress has been dealing with them. The Congress is far from safe in the South. It will have to deal with a bigger, determined and more agile BJP in 2024. The author is contributing editor, Firstpost. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views. Read all the  Latest News,  Trending News,  Cricket News,  Bollywood News, India News and  Entertainment News here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.