BJP cadres paste Modi's photo on Chess Olympiad posters

CHENNAI: Stirring a new controversy over the Chess Olympiad publicity blitz, BJP members on Wednesday pasted portraits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on billboards put up here as part of the State government's publicity campaign for the 44th Chess Olympiad and they raised objections to the posters and billboards featuring only Chief minister MK Stalin's images.

Interestingly, the Prime Minister will be inaugurating the 44th Chess Olympiad to be held at nearby Mamallapuram, starting on July 28 and ending on August 10.

BJP’s sports and skill development cell, state president Amar Prasad Reddy shared on his Twitter handle a video clip of him fixing photographs of Modi on hoardings, along with two others.

Let me remind CM @stalin that our PM Sh. @narendramodi Avl is the sole representative of this Nation🔥🔥
Here we begin!!!

Chess Olympiad 2022.@annamalai_k @blsanthosh @JPNadda pic.twitter.com/eKiMW8GmQ9

— Amar Prasad Reddy (@amarprasadreddy) July 27, 2022

In the video, Reddy blamed the DMK government for going ahead with the campaign for the chess event without including Modi's photograph and termed it a 'huge mistake. ”The Olympiad is not a state-level event but are international tournament. This is not a DMK party function. This is a government (sponsored) event. Prime Minister's photograph must be featured," he said in the video clip. He also urged office-bearers, party workers and those in the BJP's sports and skill development cell to emulate him and fix portraits of Modi on hoardings for the Chess Olympiad across Tamil Nadu.

Reacting to the Prime Minister's photo missing in the advertisements, DMK spokesperson R Rajiv Gandhi said that the State government made all efforts to hold the Chess Olympiad in the city and made all arrangements for it. “The government has spent around Rs 100 crore to make an elaborate arrangement for the event. Narendra Modi was invited to the inaugural ceremony of the international competition as the PM of the country,” he tweeted.