The election temperature in Tamil Nadu went up a notch with star campaigners of the BJP, including the party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, L K Advani, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Venkiah Naidu and Mukthar Abbas Naqvi, scheduled to visit the State.
Modi will address an election campaign meeting at the Jain College Grounds here at 7 pm on April 13 and canvass in Krishnagiri and Coimbatore on April 16. The next day, he will visit Erode in the morning and later Salem and Ramanathapuram before concluding his campaign in Kanyakumari. This will be his first visit to Tamil Nadu after the party succeeded in firming up a rainbow alliance with DMDK, PMK, MDMK, KMDK and IJK.
The tentative schedule of the other top leaders of BJP is as follows: LK Advani and Rajnath Singh (April 18), Nitin Gadkari (April 16), Venkaiah Naidu (April 17, 18 and 19) and Mukthar Abbas Naqvi (April 20).
“There is intense focus from the national leadership in reaching every nook and corner of Tamil Nadu and this is our campaign objective. The tour managers of the leaders are also working out options on alliance party leaders sharing the dais with those from the BJP,” P Muralidhar Rao, BJP’s national general secretary said at a press conference here.
Responding to a question, he said a possible BJP-led government after the polls would be sensitive to the issues concerning Tamil Nadu and Tamil people. Issues such as industrialisation and employment, besides the Sri Lankan Tamils issue and instances of attacks on Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy will be addressed.
On the rejection of nomination papers of Nilgiris (SC) BJP candidate S Gurumurthy, Rao dubbed it as an ‘unfortunate setback’ but expressed confidence that it would not affect his party’s overall electoral prospects in Tamil Nadu.
Asked why BJP was not critical of AIADMK, he said his party’s fight was with Congress and its constituents. Pointing out that the BJP and its allies were fighting against AIADMK candidates, he said, “If we were soft on them, this alliance would not have emerged.” When asked if a post-poll alliance with AIADMK was a possibility, he said his party will be faithful to allies.
Narendra Modi set to Meet Superstar
Chennai: BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi itinerary in the city on Sunday includes a meeting with superstar Rajnikanth. P Muralidhar Rao, national general secretary of the BJP, shared this information with mediapersons at a press conference here on Saturday and later confirmed it through a tweet. “Narendra Modi is visiting cine super star Rajnikanth at his residence in Chennai tomorrow evening,” the tweet read. Rajnikanth has been avoiding queries regarding politics for the past few years. During the recent audio release of his movie Kochadaiyaan too he declined to take political questions. When asked whether he would support BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi or Aam Aadmi leader Arvind Kejriwal in the Lok Sabha elections, the actor politely said: “no politics, please.”