Amit Shah opts out, Nitin Gadkari likely to represent BJP in Karunanidhi homage meet

DMK sources told DTNext that Amit Shah had earlier confirmed his participation in the meeting, prompting the Dravidian party to even print invitations bearing his name. However, he has now withdrawn from the meeting. 

It has been learnt that Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari will instead represent the BJP in the meeting. 

DMK has already started printing new set of invitations for the meeting which would be attended by former Prime Minister Deve Gowda, Congress general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, NCP leader Sharad Pawar and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah. 

Chief ministers Nitish Kumar (Bihar), N Chandrababu Naidu (Andhra Pradesh), Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi), V Narayanasamy (Puducherry), Trinamool Congress MP Derek O Brien, CPI general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy and CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury are also scheduled to attend the meeting.

The DMK was confident of Shah’s participation till BJP leader Subramanian Swamy posted on Twitter, “Happy to learn that Party President Amit Shah has decided not to attend the DMK meet.” 

State BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan echoed similar views on Saturday by stating that no official communication has been received from Shah’s office about his participation in the meeting and if the BJP national president does not attend, some other leader would represent the party at the event.