Prime Minister Narendra Modi will ring in Election Year 2024 with a two-day visit to Tamil Nadu and Lakshadweep, amid speculation he might contest from a southern constituency to push the ruling party’s expansion plans in a region still largely out of its grasp.

The focus of the January 2-3 visit will be DMK-ruled Tamil Nadu where Udhayanidhi Stalin, minister and son of chief minister M.K. Stalin, had recently generated controversy with his call to “eradicate” Sanatan Dharma. He later clarified he was urging an end to caste discrimination.

The BJP had used the controversy in its successful campaign for the recent Assembly polls in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Modi is expected to refer to Udayanidhi’s comments during his Tamil Nadu visit.

Party sources suggested that Tamil Nadu could be on top of Modi’s agenda also for another reason — he is said to be quietly preparing to contest from a Lok Sabha constituency in the state in addition to Varanasi, which he now represents.

As he bids for a third straight term in office, Modi is apparently eager to show that he enjoys popular support even in the south and in a state where the BJP has very little influence, the sources said.

The constituency on Modi’s radar is said to be Ramanathapuram, in which falls the Hindu pilgrimage site of Rameswaram.

Party insiders say that Varanasi, Modi’s current constituency, and Rameswaram have deep and longstanding religious and cultural links and Ramanathapuram would therefore be ideal to underline the Hindutva bond between the north and the south.

The Modi government has since 2022 been organising an annual, month-long “Tamil Kashi Sangamam” in Varanasi to “celebrate the age-old links between Tamil Nadu and Kashi (Varanasi)”.

“Kashi and Tamil Nadu are timeless centres of culture and civilisation. Kashi is of Lord Vishwanath and Tamil Nadu is blessed by Lord Rameswaram.... Tamil Nadu is the Kashi of the south,” Modi had said addressing the 2022 event.

While the January 22 consecration of the Ram temple will set the tone for the BJP’s election campaign, Rameswaram could add to the messaging thanks to its proximity to Adam’s Bridge. This is a chain of limestone shoals between India and Sri Lanka that many Hindus consider to be the bridge --- Ram Setu -- that Ram’s army built to Lanka.

The BJP has so far been tight-lipped about Modi’s purported plan to contest from the south. Party leaders said his Tamil Nadu visit should be seen in the light of the BJP’s “special south India focus” for 2024.

“The Opposition’s efforts to push a north vs south narrative using the BJP’s defeat in Karnataka and success in the Hindi states has hurt the Prime Minister and so the party leadership wants to make a point in 2024,” a BJP leader said.

Party insiders said that apart from Modi, some other senior leaders too could contest the Lok Sabha polls from Tamil Nadu. They mentioned finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and foreign minister S. Jaishankar, both Rajya Sabha members now.

Sitharaman has been assigned to participate in the ongoing “Modi Ki Guarantee” vehicle campaign in Tamil Nadu as part of the government’s Vikshit Bharat Sankalp Yatra to take welfare schemes to the beneficiaries’ doorstep.

Another reason for the BJP’s Tamil Nadu focus is the breakup of its alliance with the AIADMK. Party leaders said the upcoming polls would be an opportunity for the BJP to show how strong it independently is in the state.

Party managers said internal surveys had repeatedly shown that Modi enjoys high popularity across the southern states, and the BJP now wants to harness it to win elections and expand the organisation in the region.

The government’s publicity wing, the Press Information Bureau, said the Prime Minister would “inaugurate, dedicate to the nation and lay foundation stone of multiple development projects worth more than Rs 19850 crores (sic) in Tamil Nadu”.

In the Union Territory of Lakshadweep (one Lok Sabha seat), Modi is scheduled to inaugurate or lay the foundation stones for development projects worth Rs 1,150 crore.

Modi is known to use official events for political campaigning, and is expected all the more to do so now that the countdown for the general election has begun. The polls are expected in April-May but there is speculation about an advanced schedule following the January 22 Ram temple inauguration in Ayodhya.

Modi’s inaugurations and foundation stone laying are usually followed by a public speech, in which he pitches his political message.

The Prime Minister will inaugurate multiple projects related to railways, roads, oil and gas, and shipping in Tamil Nadu. He will inaugurate the new terminal at the Tiruchirapalli international airport and address the convocation at Bharathidasan University.

“@BJP4Tamilnadu has already begun the cleanup drive since yesterday & will be conducting a mega cleanup drive in Trichy & its surrounding areas as a part of Swachh Bharat on the 2nd of January 2024, from 6 am to 8 am,” Tamil Nadu BJP chief K. Annamalai posted on X, urging people to join the cleanliness drive ahead of Modi’s visit.

Annamalai has been leading a Yatra across the state to try and gain a foothold for the party.

Barring Karnataka, where the BJP won 25 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 but lost the Assembly elections in 2023, and Telangana, where it won 4 of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 but lost the Assembly polls in 2023, the BJP has been unable to penetrate the other southern states that together account for 131 Lok Sabha seats.

The BJP won just 8 of the 119 Assembly seats in the recent Telengana polls but party leaders cited the doubling of the vote share, from 7 to 14 per cent, as a sign of the party’s growing popularity.