Inside Narendra Modi’s battle to win over the south
Can the BJP woo the country’s richer, better-educated states?
The odds, on balance, favoured Modi the bull. The beast, named in honour of Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, charged full pelt into the arena at a recent bull-taming contest in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Its challenge was to reach the other end without being “tamed” by any of the young men competing to grab it by the hump. One got hold for a moment, only to lose his grip. “He’s very aggressive,” explained the bull’s owner, K. Annamalai. But the key, he said, was its “360-degree situational awareness”.
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This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Narendra Modi’s southern push”
From the March 2nd 2024 edition
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