Amit Shah focuses on widening BJP's cadre base in Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI: BJP President Amit Shah on Saturday made a mention about key political issues in Tamil Nadu – electricity, employment, fishermen’s trouble at sea, and dynasty politics in a half-hour speech aimed largely to talk about the centre's achievements so far and to widen the party's base in Tamil Nadu.

A clear attempt was made to rouse the grassroots cadre into action in Tamil Nadu as the state gears up for elections in 2016. To a crowd of about 10,000 people, Shah gave a toll-free number to which they need give just a missed call, to enroll in the BJP.

“First it was DMK, then AIADMK, then DMK… it went on,” Shah said to a gathering in the outskirts of the capital city in Tamil Nadu.

With an image as an election juggernaut, Amit Shah enters at a point when Dravidian politics is at one of its lowest points in Tamil Nadu. The Chief Minister O Paneerselvam is a stand-in for AIADMK’s leader J Jayalalithaa, who fell out of action following conviction in an assets case, and arch-rival DMK lying low due to an ongoing investigation in 2G case and internal bickering.

Speaking from a stage fashioned as the Fort St George, the seat of power in Tamil Nadu, Amit Shah apologised for speaking in Hindi, and promised to learn Tamil soon. Shah picked up a national angle as the first pitch. He retorted to Rahul Gandhi’s question about the meager change he could see in the six months of BJP rule in the country with: “Ten times we have cut the price of petrol and diesel, and how many times of the UPA-DMK alliance done during their rule?”

“BJP needs to strengthen in these States to become a political entity of truly national character,” he said. While Amit Shah refrained from taking on State political rivals in a big way, his state colleagues Tamilisai Soundararajan and Muralidhar Rao tore into Dravidian parties on points of – corruption charges and dynasty trouble. Tamilisai said it takes 600 days for a tender to be passed in the state, a pointer to policy paralysis that she claimed BJP will turnaround.