CHENNAI: National president of the BJP, Amit Shah, would visit Madurai on August 6 for an interaction with grass root level functionaries of the party’s southern district units. Shah was originally scheduled to visit Tamil Nadu on July 15 to take part in the birthday celebrations of former Chief Minister K Kamaraj.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in the city on Friday, State president Tamilisai Soundararajan said Shah would visit Puducherry on August 7 for an interaction with cadre .
Further, she said the State unit had enrolled 45 lakh new members and now, in the second phase, all of them were being contacted by the party’s office-bearers for confirming their membership. They would be given training in August.
Playing down the visit of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi to Tiruchy, she said, “it won’t have any impact on the people of Tamil Nadu. In the past, the Congress did not invite any of its national leaders to celebrate Kamaraj’s birthday. This year, just because the BJP celebrated it by inviting its national leaders, they have followed suit.”
Responding to a question, she said the BJP is shaping up as an effective alternative in Tamil Nadu and that the party would form a grand alliance for the 2016 Assembly elections. “Some parties may go out of the NDA in the State and some may come in. If needed, the BJP will face the Assembly elections on its own,” Tamilisai quipped.
Opposing the State government’s reported move to open Elite wine shops across the State, she said the BJP would protest the move and step up its campaign for enforcing prohibition in Tamil Nadu.