BJP eyes TN’s Dalit vote bank after Bihar win, to push for consolidation
Chennai: The impressive victory of the BJP-led alliance in the Bihar Assembly election has prompted a renewed strategic rethink within the party — with its top leaders reportedly deciding to replicate the model in Tamil Nadu by consolidating Scheduled Caste (SC) parties and mobilising Dalit votes ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls.
In Bihar, opposition parties have alleged that the performance of Union Minister Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) was a crucial factor behind the NDA’s victory. The LJP(RV) won 19 seats and secured 4.97 per cent of the vote share. This outcome has strengthened the perception that a strong, unified Dalit-centric party can decisively influence electoral results in states with significant SC populations.
In the 2020 Bihar Assembly polls, Nitish Kumar had declined to include Chirag Paswan in the alliance, forcing the LJP to contest independently on 135 seats, where it secured 5.66 per cent votes.
The split in votes hit the JD(U) hard, bringing down its tally to just 43 out of the 115 seats it contested. The BJP and Nitish Kumar learned the lessons from that episode and brought Chirag Paswan back into the NDA fold this time, benefiting from a consolidated SC support base.
Tamil Nadu, similarly, has nearly 20 per cent Scheduled Caste population and several SC-based parties, including Thol. Thirumavalavan’s VCK and Krishnasamy’s Puthiya Tamilagam. However, none of these parties individually represent Dalits on the scale of Chirag Paswan’s outfit in Bihar.
Following the Bihar results, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the victory would energise BJP workers across Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, West Bengal, and Assam, adding that “there is nothing BJP workers cannot achieve.”
The BJP strategists believe that winning a significant share of SC votes in Tamil Nadu is essential for the alliance to make major gains in 2026.
Besides existing allies like Dr Krishnasamy and John Pandian, senior BJP leaders have reportedly instructed the party’s Tamil Nadu leadership to begin efforts to bring more SC-based parties and organisations into the NDA fold.
Senior BJP functionaries claim that while Dalit parties have emerged as strong political forces in states like Bihar, major Dravidian parties have historically prevented such groups from gaining independent strength in Tamil Nadu.
They allege that even VCK, led by Thirumavalavan, is “marginalised” within the DMK alliance through limited seat allocation.
Against this backdrop, the BJP leadership is said to have asked its Tamil Nadu unit to intensify outreach and create awareness among Dalit communities, signalling the party’s intention to reshape the SC political landscape ahead of 2026.