AIADMK leaders get a few minutes with Modi today, may brief him on Assembly poll strategies

Besides a series of inaugural programmes, senior leaders of AIADMK and the BJP are to apprise Modi of the poll strategies taken up in the state during a brief informal chat. According to AIADMK insiders, both Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam will interact with the Prime Minister along the sidelines of the inaugural programmes. 

The PMO has allocated a few minutes to both AIADMK and BJP leaders to greet and interact with the PM, sources said. The PM will travel in the convoy zipping from south Chennai to central Chennai, where the inaugural sessions are scheduled through video conferencing. After laying the foundation stone for the fourth railway line between Chennai and Athipattu, the PM will address the people and leave the city by afternoon. 

However, BJP Tamil Nadu state poll in-charge CT Ravi said the objective of Modi’s visit is to focus on development and inaugurate the Chennai Metro Rail service in north Chennai. “The seat sharing talks between the BJP and the AIADMK will be taken up by the party core committee and the BJP will fight the upcoming assembly polls in TN under the leadership of the AIADMK, ” Ravi told reporters on Saturday. 

The BJP and AIADMK have also planned to mobilise a record crowd to greet the PM in poll-bound Tamil Nadu. BJP state president L Murugan on Saturday conducted a review meeting with the state BJP workers on the arrangements made to receive the PM enroute to the event’s venue. Party workers and public have been mobilised and this time arrangements will be elaborate, said a BJP functionary who had been given two sites to mobilise crowd near Jawaharlal Nehru stadium.