India, May 5 -- The Bharatiya Janata Party, which pulled off an impressive win in West Bengal, retained power in Assam and is part of the ruling coalition in Puducherry, is now in power, either on its own or with allies, in 22 of the 31 states and UTs. The number of BJP legislators across the country, too, has doubled since 2013, from 773 to 1798. But as it increases its footprint across the country, there is still a frontier that the party aspires to breach - the South.

Barring Karnataka, where the party has been in power previously (it formed the government for the first time in 2008) and in Andhra Pradesh, where its ally, the Telugu Desam Party, is in power, electoral success has eluded the party in Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Kerala. T...