RAMANATHAPURAM: Days after the BJP announced a mega alliance in Tamil Nadu — along with AIADMK, PMK and Puthiya Tamizhagam among others — its national president Amit Shah visited the State and addressed his party workers in Ramanathapuram on Friday. Sources say the BJP chief held two meetings with AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam at the Madurai airport to iron out differences between potential allies.
The leaders, sources say, discussed the constituencies to be allotted to BJP and DMDK’s position on joining the alliance. Addressing the party cadre, Shah stuck to his usual formula and attacked DMK and Congress for alleged corruption and scandals during their tenure in the government.
Responding to Stalin’s charge that BJP has done nothing for TN, Shah said: “We need not prove anything to Stalin. But, we need to prove it to people of Tamil Nadu. Amit Shah is bound to submit accounts to people of Tamil Nadu. Would Rahul Gandhi and Stalin dare to submit accounts of what they have done for the State when they were in power?”
The BJP chief said the Centre has, in the last five years, approved welfare schemes and projects worth Rs 5,42,500 crore for Tamil Nadu.
Last five years, Centre released Rs 5,42,500 cr for TN welfare: Shah
BJP president Amit Shah made sure to remember and pay tributes to CRPF personnel killed in the Pulwama bomb attack. He assured that the Centre would take “vigorous action” against the terrorist attack and promised stringent action against terrorism in any part of the country.
Shah recalled the contributions of TN to the country -- how Ramnad Raja Bhaskara Sethupathy financed Swami Vivekananda’s trip to Chicago for the world conference and APJ Abdul Kalam’s contribution to missile technology. He pointed out that current Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was a Tamilian.
The BJP president appealed to his party cadres to work for the victory of their party in 2019 Lok Sabha polls. “BJP won the 2014 polls because of our cadre and booth-level workers across the country. This time, we should ensure victory in all 40 seats in Tamil Nadu,” he said, adding that the NDA would win at least 35 seats in the State.
Listing out the development activities promised or undertaken by Centre in TN, Shah said that between 2014 and 2019, Centre had sanctioned Rs 5,42,500 crore for welfare schemes and projects in the State. He claimed the earlier Congress government had sanctioned only Rs 94,540 crore for the State during their tenure.