Hardly 12 hours after he exhorted the cadre in Tamil Nadu to ensure the enrolment of 60 lakh new members in the party, Amit Shah, the BJP president, has given a task to the State leadership; make BJP the single largest party in the 2016 Assembly election.
“In the 2016 Assembly election, the BJP would emerge as the single largest party and the next Chief Minister should be from the party,” Shah told reporters on Sunday. He said all factors are favourable for the BJP to emerge as the single largest party in the next Assembly elections.
“The BJP will lead the National Democratic Alliance in the 2016 Tamil Nadu Assembly election. There are differences of opinion among the alliance partners. But those issues would be sorted out by the time of the election. The chief ministerial candidate will be announced by the BJP before the election,” said Shah.
The BJP boss pointed out that people in Tamil Nadu wanted a change and the BJP is the right choice. “The alternate rule by the DMK and the AIADMK has cost the State dearly in terms of development and growth. The BJP has plans and persons to take Tamil Nadu into a trajectory of gowth and we will do it,” he explained.
Shah said the 2014 lok Sabha election was a watershed moment for both Tamil Nadu and the BJP. “An alliance san the AIADMK and the DMK was formed in Tamil Nadu. The NDA polled 19 per cent of the popular votes and the BJP got five per cent of the votes. This is the prelude to the changes which is going to take place in the State,” said Shah.
The BJP chief made a sporty announcement on the issue of religious conversions. Referring to the criticism raised by some of the Opposition parties against ghar wapsi programme of the VHP, Shah said the BJP was against forced conversion. “As far as conversions are concerned, our Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu has already made it clear that that the Government is opposed to it and could bring an anti-conversion law if the so called secular parties too wanted it,” said Shah.
When asked about RSS chief Mohan Bhagawat’s comment that the Opposition should extend their support to a Bill banning religious conversions, Shah said the RSS was a nationalist organisation. He also rejected the Opposition’s content that anti-conversion law would derail development.
Earlier in the day, the BJP president called on veteran political commentator ‘Cho’ Ramaswamy at his residence. Shah said it was a courtesy call to enquire about the health of Cho who had been hospitalised recently.