In Venkaiah Naidu's VP candidature, BJP looks for permanent stay in South

A seasoned politician with wit, his ease with opposition parties and his ability to forge alliances has made Venkaiah Naidu an asset for the BJP.

What BJP wants is not a southern sojourn but a permanent stay and Venkaiah Naidu seems to be the perfect navigator.

Hailing from Andhra Pradesh, representing Karnataka as an MP three times and being the BJP's trusted envoy for alliances in Tamil Nadu, Venkaiah Naidu's engagements in the South have had a major role in NDA picking him as their Vice President candidate.

Add to it the ease and friendship that Venkaiah Naidu shares with the opposition parties, the BJP may have just managed to win the respect, if not the silence of the opposition towards the chair in the Rajya Sabha.

Finding BJP an ally in Tamil Nadu

On Tamil Nadu's hostile grounds, BJP trusted Venkaiah Naidu to forge an alliance with the AIADMK under Jayalalithaa's leadership. Way back in 2004, the then BJP President Venkaiah Naidu was the sole reason for an alliance with AIADMK. While AIADMK-BJP's first alliance had ended in 1999, Naidu took the initiative of realigning with the Dravidian party.

In December 2016, following the death of Jayalalithaa at the Apollo hospital, Venkaiah Naidu is said to have played a vital role in the rearrangement of Tamil Nadu government. O Panneerselvam took oath as the Chief Minister soon after Jayalalithaa was declared dead. The leader's prominent presence during Jayalalithaa's funeral did not go unnoticed as well.

Following Jayalalithaa's demise, Venkaiah Naidu even told the press that AIADMK was ideologically close to the BJP and that an offer for tie up was made for the Tamil Nadu assembly elections.

Venkaiah Naidu was the go to man for leaders from both factions of the AIADMK after the ugly split following Panneerselvam's rebellion.

BJP's key to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh

Chief Ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were all praises for Venkaiah Naidu after the NDA declared him their nominee for the Vice President post. Given the support Naidu has in both these Telugu-speaking states, the BJP hopes to make some foothold. The Jai Andhra Movement of 1972 put Naidu in the spotlight. Bringing Jayaprakash Narayan to Nellore just before the emergency catapulted his status as a leader who didn't mind being locked up in prison for fighting for a cause.

While he backed off from it, Venkaiah was still the first BJP MP to raise the issue of Special Status to Andhra Pradesh in Rajya Sabha when the party was in the opposition. For someone who has been the president of BJP both at National and State level, Vankaiah Naidu manages to sense what the party needs to do to leave an impression in places that are historically not its bastion.

Three-time MP from Karnataka

A thorough product of the RSS, Venkaiah Naidu first joined the ABVP before shifting focus on BJP. Despite being elected as MLA from Andhra Pradesh twice, Naidu represented Karnataka as an MP three consecutive times. Venkaiah Naidu has been an MP since 1998 and his first three stints were as MP from Karnataka. Until Monday, he was an MP from Rajasthan. Despite receiving severe flak for being a non-Kannadiga yet an MP from the state, Venkaiah Naidu played a key role in including cities from Karnataka for the smart city project.

Ease with opposition parties

As parliamentary affairs minister, Venkaiah Naidu managed to deal with opposition party with much ease. So much so that the BJP chose to make him part of the delegation that met Congress President Sonia Gandhi on arriving at a consensus for Presidential elections. In the event that Venkaiah Naidu wins the Vice President election, the BJP hopes that his ease with opposition parties comes handy in the Rajya Sabha where BJP is still in the minority.

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