Though the BJP in Tamil Nadu is yet to identify prospective alliance partners for the upcoming election to the State Assembly which may be announced any time now by the Election Commission of India, the party is kick starting its election campaign in style with its star campaigner Narendra Modi scheduled to address a rally at Coimbatore on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Modi is making a whirlwind five-hour long tour to the textile city of South India on Tuesday where he would inaugurate an ESI Medical College followed by a public meeting organised by the party’s State unit. Coimbatore is a favourite spot of Modi and he had addressed a rally during the 2014 lok Sabha election. This time Modi’s visit assumes significance as Coimbatore has figured in the list of cities selected by the Centre to be developed as Smart Cities. Moreover, BJP has a strong presence in Coimbatore. The party had won the Coimbatore lok Sabha seat in 1998 and 1999 election in alliance with the AIADMK and the DMK respectively.
The Tamil Nadu leadership of the BJP is in the dark about the possibilities of Modi meeting leaders of any other parties during his Coimbatore trip. “Till Monday evening nothing has been finalised. We do not know whether the Central leadership is in discussion with other parties in the State,” said a senior BJP leader in Chennai.
l Ganeshan, the veteran BJP leader said that the party would firm up its alliance partners by mid-February. “The Tamil month of Thai is important to us. The month of Thai began on January 15.The belief is that Tamil for all solutions will arise in the month of Thai.”
But with hardly ten days remaining, the BJP is yet to get a solution for its alliance woes. Though its former ally Vijayakanth of the DMDK is keeping the saffron party guessing with a sadistic pleasure, the BJP’s vice president Vanati Sreenivasan said informal discussions were on with the film actor-turned-politician’s party.