Can Modi Wave Put Pondicherry In BJP's Kitty?

When the whole country was ruled by British a tiny little coastal area in the Tamil Nadu coastline was ruled by the French and they also had 3 other such places namely Karaikal, Yanam and Mahe in other neighbouring South Indian states. This place was named as Pondicherry and Puducherry recently. Since the first general election in 1952, people were so keen on voting for Congress.

The recent assembly elections in 2011 saw a major split where the erstwhile Congress leader Rangaswamy went on to form his own party and contested the election in an alliance with ADMK. He also came out with flying colours. The scope of saffron party will be very less to succeed as the french colony is a mix of Vanniyar and other such castes. They are the traditional voters of the Congress and the other two dravidian parties. Till now once or twice ADMK managed to form a state government of its own. But out of the 15 lok sabha elections, only two favoured DMK and ADMK that too as an ally partner. BJP fielded Lalitha Kumaramangalam against M. Ramadoss of PMK(which was the then UPA ally).

But the BJP candidate was smart enough to finish second in the 2004 elections with a vote share of 35.65 percent. The formidable grand alliance broke away all those efforts and turned victorious. The 2009 election gave a clear cut majority for the Congress and the candidate who represented UPA on a PMK ticket came second to Narayanaswamy of Congress and Visveswaran of BJP finished with a vote share of 2.21 percent.

BJP was lucky enough in the 2001 assembly elections where it managed to win the Reddiarpalayam seat. A party like BJP winning this seat is definitely a surprise for various reasons. One such reason is, Reddiarpalayam is a mixture of Vanniyars and other religious people. They voted for Communist in 1996 and 1991. The positive wave of good governance carried-out by Vajpayee as Prime Minister could've favoured it. But the candidate who fought for the BJP was not in the party for the next election.

Considering the fact that a strong leader can bring votes, the Modi wave can definitely pave way for the saffron party to win this lone lok sabha segment. But the tough fight between the regional parties can curtail BJP's chances.