BJP eye on south, data shows rise in PM Modi visits to five states

Reflecting the BJP’s push to make inroads into the south, the number of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trips to the five southern states saw a steady rise in the last two years of his second term leading up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, which started on April 19.

Records available on the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) website show that Modi made 146 trips to the five southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu between May 26, 2014, and April 17, 2024. He made 73 visits each to these states in his first and second terms. More than one-third of these trips came in the last three years — 2022 (13), 2023 (23) and 2024 (23 till April 17). Overall, the share of southern states in domestic trips undertaken by Modi during this period rose from 14% in his first term to 18% in the second.

In the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, Tamil Nadu voted in the first phase on April 19. Kerala voted in the second phase on April 26 while Telangana and Andhra will vote in the fourth phase on May 13. Karnataka voted on April 26 and will complete polling on May 7.

The records show that Modi undertook 928 domestic visits, including 520 in his first term (2014-19) and 408 in the second (after May 2019). Of these, the Prime Minister visited UP the most (153) followed by Gujarat (87), Maharashtra (61), MP (54), Rajasthan (49) and Karnataka (45). These six states accounted for almost half of his domestic trips while UP and Gujarat alone accounted for a little over a quarter of them.

The Prime Minister toured Karnataka the most among southern states in the last 10 years, followed by Tamil Nadu (39), Kerala (25), Telangana (22) and Andhra (15). With the five states accounting for 129 of 543 seats in Lok Sabha, the BJP has