It has been two years since the Narendra Modi-led government assumed charge at the centre. Since then, the BJP has been promoting the party above the regional parties in all the states. While the party is trying all the known strategies to accomplish its national dominance, they have currently launched their own version of the ‘Namakku Namae’ campaign in the south.

Senior leaders of the party, including cabinet and union ministers, have started touring the states, announcing and promoting the various welfare schemes of the central government, which, they claim, have not reached the people of the southern states. Apart from publicizing their achievements, the leaders have also started openly asking the people to support them.

“The ministers of the NDA government have not stopped from reaching out to the people of Tamil Nadu despite the fact that the voters did not reward us with representations. But at the same time, we would also expect a democratic outcome during the upcoming elections,” the party’s general secretary Muralidhar Rao said during one such event in Coimbatore recently.

The party leaders are also comparing the performance of the NDA with the UPA, claiming that the centre is fighting to stabilize the economy, despite the global recession. Union Minister for Environment Prakash Javadekar is further comparing how the alleged scams of the UPA government have been turned into success stories by the BJP-led NDA government.

One can draw plenty of similarities between the BJP’s initiative of reaching out to the people with the Namakku Namae campaign run by the DMK treasurer, M.K. Stalin. The trip was rewarded with 89 seats for the party in the assembly, but, it failed to win them the required number to form the government.

Both the campaigns look eerily similar. Stalin talked about the achievements of the DMK during its regime, while the BJP is listing out all the things it had done in the past two years.. Not to be left behind is the AIADMK which too celebrates each year with posters detailing its successes.

The trouble with the BJP is that the party does not have strong and popular local leaders to interpret the centre’s ideas in regional languages. This was one of is greatest drawbacks in the recent elections. With the leaders from the Centre using English and Hindi to communicate, southern states, especially Tamil Nadu, could forever remain a non-favourite hunting ground for the BJP.

The issue had echoed at the Centre and the regional leaders have been instructed to support the ministers who come for campaigning and also carry on with the activities after their tour. However, the issue cannot be sorted out if the BJP fails to master the regional languages.