Tamil Nadu

In Tamil Nadu, criticism of Modi was the campaign's centrepiece, thanks to MK Stalin, chief minister and president of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) who wielded near total control over the campaign. Stalin and his cabinet were unsparing in their critique of the Centre’s schemes and the BJP’s sudden political protrusion in Tamil Nadu because of its party president K Annamalai’s padayatra. At DMK rallies, the air was rend with fiery speeches of how Modi and his men would destroy Tamils, the Tamil language, and Tamil Nadu if they were allowed to gain a foothold. “INDIA bloc is strong across India because of PM Modi’s autocracy which stifles opposition states, and his way of causing division on the basis of religion,” Stalin said at one of his rallies, referring to the Delhi and Jharkhand chief ministers’ arrests.

The anti-sanatana dharma sentiment that Udayanidhi Stalin and A Raja raised was woven in periodically, citing how two DMK ministers in Stalin’s cabinet were arrested for “being Dravidian” rather than corrupt. Leaders from both the DMK and Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) labelled the election “a democratic war against the BJP”. Shortly before Tamil Nadu voted on April 19, Stalin’s men hit out at the BJP over the issue of the electoral bonds scheme.

The promises of clear air and water, and continuance of welfare schemes such as free bus rides and monthly financial assistance schemes to women came in only as epilogues in Stalin’s speeches.

Kerala

Scheduled to vote just a week after Tamil Nadu, the Kerala story was not remarkably different, except that Modi was spared; but his policies weren’t. It was almost as if the Congress-led United-Democratic Front (UDF) said aye to everything the Communist Party of India-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) proposed. The Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 (CAA) was brought up first by CM Pinarayi Vijayan, who rejected the Hindu-nationalist agenda and promised to desist from implementing CAA in Kerala. This drew some quick responses from the Congress whose voter base in northern Kerala, particularly Wayanad, is almost entirely made up of Muslims along with a small percentage of Christians. If the CPM positioned itself as the most viable option at the state level, Congress doubled up on Rahul Gandhi’s image of being the more ‘Suitable Boy’ to PM Modi.

The PM’s uncaring attitude towards Manipur, India’s support for Israel, and the lack of police action on the demolition of churches in Madhya Pradesh and elsewhere — were all spun into the campaign to supposedly incite fear on how the CAA could spell doom for India’s Muslims and Christians. Kerala is perhaps the only state where an anti-CAA protest by the ruling party of the state government was held during the elections. In Kasargod, the state’s northernmost district, CM Vijayan addressed a rally attacking the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Calling the BJP a party that promotes religious zealotry, he said, “Our country is secular but the RSS never accepted secularism. It wants to make India a theocracy and remove secularism. It had declared religious minorities and communists as internal enemies.” Former Congress union finance minister P Chidambaram said in his visit to Kerala that the CAA will be repealed if the INDIA bloc forms the government.

Karnataka

Interestingly, Karnataka was the only southern state where the election for 28 parliamentary seats was conducted in two phases. Two incidents — one horrific and the other abominable — threatened to overshadow the campaigning. The killing of 21-year-old Neha Hiremath by her former classmate Fayaz in Hubbali and the allegations of sexual assault against the sitting Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna remained aggressive talking points but did not supersede the guarantees pitch.

The campaign script in Karnataka was resoundingly based on the popular ‘Modi ki guarantee’ vs the ‘Congress guarantees’. With the Congress government in the state implementing most of the five guarantees it had made to its voters during the last assembly election, the theme was recurrent even in the Lok Sabha polls. The Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge ensured that every rally featured the five guarantees. Deputy CM DK Shivakumar said that a special Guarantee Schemes Implementation Authority was constituted to ensure the effective and timely delivery of all the promises. At a rally, Siddaramaiah said, “In the last eight months, we implemented all promises. We continue to uphold our guarantees.”

The Congress’ Nyay Patra was relegated to the background as local issues and guarantees were front and centre of the Karnataka poll campaign, nearly thwarting the BJP’s national narrative of Modi’s guarantees.

Telangana

Telangana had not yet voted when PM Modi made the now infamous mangalsutra speech from Rajasthan in the last week of April, which created a row due to its communal nature. After that ill-timed speech, all talk of high-speed rails, and the development of automobiles and fisheries was replaced by tension caused by the Congress’ wealth redistribution assurances. Two weeks before the election, all chatter about Hyderabad’s name reversal to Bhagyanagar seemingly subsided.

The Congress and the BJP indulged in a slugfest with the former promising increased reservations for SCs, STs, and OBCs, and the latter calling for abolishing special schemes for Muslims. In a state with a 12% Muslim population, appeasement and the counter-narrative became a focal point of the campaign. The Congress, led by CM Revanth Reddy, led an offensive berating leaders of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi whose ‘Let’s make Telangana great again’ campaign seemingly fell on deaf ears. In a press conference addressed by Kharge on May 10, he said the PM had a fondness for all words starting with the letter M citing instances where Modi mentioned Mutton, Mughal, Muslims, and Mangalsutra. “Modi and Shah are nervous after three phases of polling... They don't talk about election issues or the work done by them. Sometimes they talk about Mughals, the Muslim League, and sometimes the Mangalsutra,” he said.

Closer to the voting day, Reddy was summoned by the Delhi Police in connection with circulating a deep fake video where Union home minister Amit Shah purportedly threatened to scrap all existing reservations for SCs, STs, and OBCs. The campaign war over the redistribution of wealth caused much confusion and took the focus away from key issues.

Andhra Pradesh

The campaign in Andhra Pradesh was remarkably different from its neighbouring state. Though the BJP, JSP, and TDP were part of the NDA and Congress had its communist partners to represent the INDIA bloc, the realpolitik was amongst the three regional parties. With the state voting to elect its chief minister too, the Lok Sabha campaign was merely an extension of the state campaign, with local issues at the fore.

The YSR Congress Party led by CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy called its campaign ‘Memanta Siddham’, or ‘We are Ready’, whereas his opponent and former CM N Chandrababu Naidu called his campaign ‘Praja Galam’, or ‘Voice of the People’. The Janasena Party led by actor-cum-politician K Pawan Kalyan, with his fancy olive-green campaign truck named ‘Varahi’ drew as much attention as his fiery speeches.

Unlike many northern states where religion was a talking point, in the south, employment opportunities, better infrastructure, and the new capital became campaign issues. This led Reddy to promise that the north-coastal city of Visakhapatnam would become the new capital of the state, whereas Naidu assured the capital would be Amaravati.

The Andhra campaign was based purely on people’s issues, so neither national party stood to gain because saving the Constitution or the Ram temple mattered much less than the sluggish pace of development.

Deepika Amirapu is a freelance journalist based in Hyderabad. Each week, Southern Lights examines the big story from one of the five states of South India.