Amit Shah arrives in Vellore, set to attend public meeting

CHENNAI: Senior BJP leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah arrived in Vellore on Sunday and is set to take part in a public meeting at Kandaneri in the Vellore district.

The Minister also held discussions with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) functionaries in Chennai today. He also held a meeting with South Chennai BJP functionaries.

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."

Shah 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.

Notably, in view of Amit Shah's visit to Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister MK Stalin on Saturday said, "The media are reporting that Union Minister Amit Shah is coming to Chennai to speak in a public meeting at Vellore. The reason for this is they are getting ready for the Parliament election."

BJP state president K Annamalai refused the speculations and said, "Getting Vellore and South Chennai seats is not the reason behind Amit Shah's visit to Tamil Nadu. Whenever leaders come to Tamil Nadu, they are visiting various constituencies and that is how this has to be seen."

"Amit Shah was wishing to visit Vellore for a long time. Leaders are visiting different constituencies. Six months ago, JP Nadda visited Sivaganga and Prime Minister Narendra Narendra Modi was also about to come to Tamil Nadu in two or three months. Our party selected South Chennai and Vellore for Amit Shah to attend meetings," Annamalai added.

AC Shanmugam who contested from Vellore in 2019 met Shah on Saturday. He contested against Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's (DMK) Kathi Anand and lost the election by a margin of 8,141 votes.

Earlier in April, Union Minister of State L Murugan had said that BJP was focusing on nine constituencies in Tamil Nadu, including south Chennai.

"AC Shanmugam has a face value in Vellore which BJP believes would help them in the constituency and they also believe BJP has an edge in South Chennai which is now with DMK," BJP sources said.

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

(With inputs from ANI & Bureau)