BJP draws up meet-the-cadre plan in Tamil Nadu

Chennai: The BJP will have its top-rung leaders address booth-level cadre covering all the 39 Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu through February, with key leaders such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP national president Amit Shah and others such as defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and road transport and shipping minister Nitin Gadkari speaking at key regions in the state.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath is slated to address workers in the four southern constituencies Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, Tenkasi and Kanyakumari on February 12, while Union minister for electronics and IT Ravishankar Prasad will address the mid-west constituencies of Madurai, Theni, Dindigul and Virudhunagar. Amit Shah is set to speak to the western belt of Erode, Salem and Namakkal, which forms the perceived stronghold of Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami. Prime Minister Modi will address a public meeting on February 10, confirmed people aware of the cadre-outreach programme in Tamil Nadu.

“Every leader is set to address at least 6,000 booth-level cadre from across four constituencies. By far, this is the largest programme to meet with grassroots workers from the party leadership,” Puratchikavidasan, state secretary and party spokesperson for the BJP.


For the state BJP unit in Tamil Nadu, the arrival of leaders offers hope of a charged campaign that squarely addresses issues such as the reservation amendment and popularises welfare schemes including the Ayushman Bharat insurance plan, which Modi touched tangentially during his public meeting last week. “There is, clearly, no doubt the arrangements are a sign of a full-fledged campaign machinery rolling with this schedule,” said BJP spokesperson Narayanan Thirupathy.