By Santosh Kumar Pathak

New Delhi, Apr 9 (IANS): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has expanded rapidly in the last nine years. Recently, on the occasion of its foundation day on April 6, BJP workers and leaders gathered at more than 10,72,000 places across the country to listen to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's virtual live address.

Party leaders and workers also hoisted the flag at all 978 districts, 15,923 mandals and 10,56,002 booths across the country, as per the party.

BJP has been continuously winning elections in different states and has assumed the role of the main Opposition party in the states where it has had to face defeat, such as West Bengal. Many states have become the impregnable strongholds of the saffron party.

In South India, the BJP is strongest in Karnataka, where it has formed the government several times and has a BJP Chief Minister. In Puducherry, the BJP is in power with an alliance. But the other four states of South India -- Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh -- continue to be the biggest question marks for the party.

According to the rapidly changing political situation of the country, the importance of these four south Indian states has increased considerably in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections to be held in 2024.

This can be gauged from the fact that Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry together send 130 MPs to the Lok Sabha, out of which only 29 seats are with the BJP. From the 29 seats, it has got 25 seats from Karnataka alone and has four seats from Telangana. The BJP does not have a single seat in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Puducherry.

Assembly elections are going to be held in Karnataka on May 10 and the party has put all its might to form the government in the state with absolute majority on its own. The BJP is contesting the elections in Karnataka with a target of winning 150 seats.

The Assembly polls are due later this year in Telangana too. That is why this year is being seen as a semi-final to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP has opened a front against the KCR government in the state.

Along with this, the saffron party is trying to strengthen itself in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. For this, while the party is relying on the popularity of its most prominent face, Modi, on the other hand, under Mission South India, the party has started associating with big leaders of other parties as well.

Modi and BJP chief J.P. Nadda, including all the veteran leaders and Union Ministers of the party have been continuously visiting these states. Modi also visited Telangana and Tamil Nadu on Saturday and announced various important projects worth crores of rupees to the people of the state.

Since the last three days, the party has also been trying to send a political message by including big leaders of these states in the party in Delhi.

The BJP inducted Anil Antony, son of veteran Congress leader, former Chief Minister of Kerala and Defence Minister in the Manmohan Singh government, A.K. Antony on April 6. Similarly on April 7 and 8, the party inducted former Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh, Kiran Kumar Reddy and former Congress leader and great-grandson of C. Rajagopalachari, C.R. Kesavan.