TMC's trans regional expansion has many facets to it. For one, I think it is first and foremost aims to strongly signal to the Bengali voter that Maomata has national acceptability and has a chance at becoming PM. So, elect a Bengali PM. The idea is to lock In 42 1/N Seats in the state which are by no means a given. 2021 May should not delude anyone into believing BJP is toast in the state. Come 2024, the party will be fiercely competitive in the state. So 42 seats have to be secured.
Secondly, this expansion gives a platform for 2/N

The farm law repeal is a setback and a huge loss of face, for @narendramodi. Not for anyone else. He has risked his majesty and political image on this. Why? Not because the laws for bad, he defended them. But the consequences were going beyond just the political (1/N) My analysis is that this is not driven by electoral calculations in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Mr Modi definitely knows that his party isn't gaining in Punjab and won't gain any edge it already doesn't have in UP with this move. It has got to do with the situation in PB (2/N)

#Historical_Negationism I was in Kashi over the weekend and was at the site if the holy Bindu Madhava Temple. I was explaining the greatness of the temple to my fellow travellers and was relating how Alamgir ordered the temple, one of the grandest in Kashi in its times, to (1/n) Be destroyed and replaced with the Alamgir mosque which stands there today arrogantly facing the panchanga ghat. The murti was sunk in the Ganga until it was retrieved and placed in a small temple right next to the mosque where it now exists, an eyesore to bhaktas (2/N)

Seeing a lot of tweets on priesthood and temples. I have decided to record a very recent incident I was party to. I had the opportunity to offer prayers to my kuladevi Gangai Amman, of whom we learned after quite an effort, in our village which is just outside Tindivanam. (1/n) The Amman was retrieved from the pond and used to be offered pashu bali and catered to by an Old Pandaram family (village temple priest) belonging to the Vanniya Gounder caste. I happened to visit the place last month to make some donations for the Adi festival and explore (2/N)

Lot of conversations around anti Brahminism in Tamil Nadu over the past few days. My two bits to the conversation. The ideological discourse against Brahmins, such as it exists in terms of caricatures about the community etc, trace back to the pitched battles (1/N) That the non brahmin elite castes fought against brahmin domination of british babudom in Madras in late 1800s and early 1900s. The narrative of a narrow elite was since inherited by a strong section of educated elite across caste who owed some kind of allegiance to (2/N)

Another important point that the likes of that reclaim temple handle miss is that "indigeneous" - "mainstream" interaction is a two way street. (1/N)

https://twitter.com/GhorAngirasa/status/1249685055091265537

Apart from many theories about mainstream Brahmanical dieties having tribal roots, many indigenous dieties like karuppar, selli-amman, pechi etc are accepted for what they're alongwith their non Brahmin priesthood by Brahmins and other "Brahmanical Castes". (2/N)