Ahead of the 2024 general elections, K Annamalai, Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president, commenced a six-month long yatra from Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu on Friday, July 28. The yatra, named En Mann En Makkal (My Land, My People), will end in Chennai. It will be flagged off by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Leaders from All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Puthiya Tamilagam party leader K Krishnasamy and many others are likely to join the yatra. During the inauguration, Amit Shah will launch a book called ‘What did Modi do?’ listing achievements of the BJP-led Union government in the past nine years and distribute 1 lakh copies.
After BJP’s loss in the Karnataka Assembly elections in May, this yatra is seen as an important move for the party to retain its presence in the southern states, especially in Tamil Nadu. As of now, Tamil Nadu has no elected representatives from BJP in the Lok Sabha. Annamalai’s yatra aims to cover all 39 Parliamentary constituencies and 234 Assembly constituencies in the state in 24 weeks.
While this was earlier planned as a padayatra (foot march), according to The Hindu, it was later changed to a ‘hybrid’ yatra in which Annamalai and party cadres will travel part of the distance on foot and the rest on a campaign bus. During the yatra, Annamalai plans to visit at least two Assembly segments and walk up to 9.5 km on average each day. BJP also plans to hold 10 public meetings in 10 towns with municipal corporations during this yatra.
While the yatra was initially planned in April, it was postponed twice due to the Karnataka Assembly elections and BJP's nationwide campaign to highlight the achievements of the Modi government. Annamalai was also BJP’s co-in-charge for the Karnataka Assembly elections.
Alleging that the yatra would incite communal violence, a Chennai-based political party Desiya Munnetra Kazhagam approached Tamil Nadu Director General of Police (DGP) Shankar Jiwal to ban the yatra on Wednesday, July 26.
It is BJP’s second such yatra aimed at gaining a foothold in the state. In 2020, L Murugan, the then BJP state president, started the Vel Yatra, ahead of the 2021 state Assembly elections. The yatra had planned to cover the six abodes of the Tamil deity Murugan. But on the first day, Murugan and a few cadres from the party were detained for defying the government's COVID-19 restrictions in the state.