Though the crowd vociferously responded to his speech, the attendance was a mere 50,000 to 60,000 and people in the city did not show any interest in the Prime Minister’s visit. Besides, Modi’s words that “I have no family and people are my family” is not new to Tamil Nadu.

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Lakhs of people turned up for the public meetings of former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa who used to say the same words. But, the response to the same words when Jayalalithaa said them is beyond description with people turning emotional, women seen with tears and cadres chanting the words ‘Amma vaazhga’ repeatedly. Jayalalithaa had actually scripted history with those words and she was crowned as the Chief Minister four times in her political life.

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Addressing a well-attended public meeting in Chennai, he charged that the INDIA alliance leaders are in politics for their families while he is in politics for the people of the country. In a scathing attack on the DMK, a constituent of the INDIA bloc, he said “For the DMK, family is their first priority. The BJP is concerned with people’s welfare”.

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Describing the INDIA alliance partiers as ‘family parties’, he said they are thinking of their families first. “I have no family, I have left my family and am working for the welfare of the people. The whole nation is my family. The youth, women and farmers of the nation are my family members”.

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At this point, he raised a slogan in Tamil meaning ‘You are my family’ and asked the crowd to repeat the slogan. The big crowd responded by repeating that they are his family and cheered him boisterously for a few minutes forcing him to stop his speech.

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The last Lok Sabha elections which the AIADMK faced under Jayalalithaa’s leadership was in 2014 when she challenged Narendra Modi with the words ‘Modi or lady’ and swept 37 of the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu. The BJP which formed an alliance with actor Vijayakanth’s DMDK, Vaiko’s MDMK and the PMK, a party of the Vanniyars, a dominant community in north Tamil Nadu won the lone seat of Kanyakumari.

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The BJP alliance dissolved immediately after the elections after Vaiko walked out protesting against the invitation to Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa to the swearing-in-ceremony of Modi. The BJP which went alone in the 2016 Assembly elections polled 2.84 percent votes which is the highest in its poll history in Tamil Nadu when it has gone alone.

At the moment, the party has no alliance with any major party in Tamil Nadu since AIADMK had snapped its ties. It was expected that the BJP would bring the PMK and the DMDK into its fold before Modi’s visit. But, both the parties have shown no signs of joining hands with the BJP. At the moment former Union Minister G.K. Vasan’s Tamil Maanila Congress which polled only 0.5 percent votes in the 2021 Assembly elections is the major ally for the BJP.

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Besides few individuals like A.C. Shanmugam and T,R, Pachamuthu who run outfits in their name have tied up with the saffron party. Former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam who showed inclination towards the BJP had not entered into a poll pact with the BJP till now.

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This is the third meeting Narendra Modi is addressing in Tamil Nadu in one week. But, the BJP remains isolated in Tamil Nadu and at the moment seems to be fighting for the third place with the Naam Thamizhar Katchi led by Seeman.