AIADMK, AINRC MLAs meet Amit Shah

Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan and BJP national secretary H Raja were among those who accompanied him during his visit to Puducherry and the party’s programmes. Media persons were kept out of bounds from the meeting held at a five-star hotel. 

Meanwhile, opposition AINRC leader in Puducherry Assembly and former chief minister N Rangasamy, whose party has already pledged support to NDA presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind, led a team of party legislators to meet Shah at the hotel. 

Though AINRC has eight members in the Assembly only five, including Rangasamy, met Shah. AINRC sources termed the meeting a courtesy call. Three of the four AIADMK (Amma) faction legislators led by A Anbalagan and AIADMK MP from Puducherry N Gokulakrishnan also met the BJP chief on Monday. Shah is scheduled to hold a meeting with local industrialists and traders later in the day.

 Earlier, on Shah’s arrival here, a huge rally was taken out by party cadre through important thoroughfares from the airport to the town. Shah had earlier visited Puducherry in August 2015. He will visit Auroville on Tuesday before wrapping up his visit. 

Earlier, before coming to Puducherry Shah made a brief stop-over at Bengaluru. He was received by Karnataka BJP state unit president B S Yeddyurappa, who held a brief meeting with the party chief in the run-up to 2018 Assembly elections in the state, party sources said. 

Yeddyurappa briefed about his long drawn ‘Jana Samparka Abhiyana’ he has taken so far covering 25 districts and travelling over 8600 km across the state. He informed the Party president that the campaign was to reach out for scheduled caste and scheduled tribes people, besides other backward classes. He also claimed that he had received good response from the communities.      

Amit Shah’s visit to Puducherry comes in the wake of BJP making inroads into South India, besides Karnataka, where it wants to regain power. The party has plans to gain popularity in states like West Bengal. The Congress has been ruling Puducherry for a long time.