CHENNAI: BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday exhorted the party cadre in Tamil Nadu to make the party unit in the State the No. 1 to end the cyclical misrule of Dravidian parties and to take Tamil Nadu on board in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Mission for Growth.
In his first-ever speech in Tamil Nadu made at a public meeting at Maraimalai Nagar on the outskirts of the city, the BJP president said the DMK and AIADMK had been ruling the State for many years but the problems faced by the people remained unsolved. “To take Tamil Nadu on the path of growth along with the rest of the country, the cadre should strive to make the BJP the strongest party here,” he added.
Shah said the cadre should go to all 60,000 polling booths in the State and ensure that at least 100 people join the party in each booth so that the number of members could increase by 60 lakh. “This would ensure the dawn of BJP rule in the State in lieu of the AIADMK and DMK.” This remark of Shah is significant as his visit was expected to encourage the cadre to work towards wresting power in Tamil Nadu in the 2016 Assembly elections.
Admitting that the BJP is weak in seven states — Kerala, TN, Telangana, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Assam — Shah said the party had to be strengthened in these states to rule the country for a long time. He said Modi should be in power at the Centre for a long period if Tamil Nadu and its people and Tamils across the globe are to live with self-respect and dignity.
Taking on Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi for saying that the BJP had done nothing in the last six months, Shah gave a list of achievements of the Modi government.