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BJP President Amit Shah was in Chennai on 9 July, for a one-day visit, in an attempt to “energise grassroots level functionaries” ahead of next year's Lok Sabha polls and meet a cross-section of leaders, party insiders said to PTI.
Shah was welcomed by BJP workers, and held an interactive session with members of the Sakthi and Maha Sakthi Kendra, which comprise of the grassroots members of the party.
Hoardings, festoons and banners welcomed Shah along the route from the airport to the venue of the meeting on East Coast Road in the suburbs.
BJP Tamil Nadu unit president Tamilisai Soundararajan termed the visit of the party's national chief a "big morale booster" for workers.
The saffron party in Tamil Nadu has been trying hard to make a dent in the largely bipolar Dravidian politics dominated by the ruling AIADMK and the principal Opposition DMK.
In the hours ahead of Shah’s visit, the hashtag #GoBackAmitShah began trending on social media platform Twitter.
Residents of Tamil Nadu took to Twitter to share the hashtag “#GoBackAmitShah”.
Leaders of the Indian National Congress’ state unit as well as the DMK jumped on the #GoBackAmitShah bandwagon.
Senior CPI leader D Raja said to PTI that BJP President Amit Shah's visit to Tamil Nadu would not have any impact as the southern state will never accept "Hindutva politics".
Referring to the Centre's proposal for simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and state assemblies, the CPI leader alleged the BJP was trying to divert the nation's attention by talking about the "impractical" measure.
"Instead of talking about electoral reforms, the BJP is trying to divert issue on to simultaneous elections. That is not practical. The country has various diverse political situations. How can they impose such an initiative?" he said.
(With inputs from PTI)
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Published: 09 Jul 2018,09:55 PM IST