Amit Shah to sound poll bugle for BJP at Vellore meeting today

CHENNAI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah will visit Tamil Nadu today and address a public meeting at Vellore, where he will sound the bugle for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

On his arrival in Chennai, Shah is likely to meet leaders of the state BJP unit after which he will address a public meeting at Vellore as part of BJP’s outreach programme.

The BJP is observing a month-long public outreach programme between May 30 and June 30 to mark the Modi government’s ninth anniversary and Shah will fly to Andhra Pradesh after the Vellore event.

He was earlier scheduled to address the meeting on June 8, but was postponed to June 11 on Sunday, before it was preponed by a day to Saturday June 10.

The state BJP leaders are making elaborate arrangements for his visit and is expected to give him a rousing welcome. BJP sources said Shah’s visit will galvanise the grassroot cadre of the BJP. It will be the key to the preparations for the Lok Sabha polls next year and also for the 2026 Assembly polls, as the saffron party, which has four MLAs in the Assembly, is expected to gain a firm footing in the state.

P Sudhakar Reddy, BJP’s National co-in-charge for Tamil Nadu said, “This public meeting is organised as part of our ‘Maha Jan Sampark,’a mass contact programme aimed at reaching out to the people about the achievements during the past nine years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government at the Centre. It is being conducted in every parliamentary constituency, he said. Reddy said the party is making massive arrangements for the public meeting at Kandaneri and BJP state president K Annamalai would preside over the meeting.