BJP eyes at least 50 councillor seats in Chennai

Chennai has been tough terrain for the BJP, but this time we are confident of making inroads in Harbour, T Nagar, Velachery, Mylapore and Alandur Assembly constituencies Kamalalayam, BJP headquarters sources said. The party high-level meeting led by BJP state secretary K Annamalai, which convened in Chennai also discussed the prospects of the saffron party in Coimbatore, Tirunelveli and Kanniyakumari.

BJP Tamil Nadu in-charge P Sudhakar Reddy, BJP leaders Pon Radhakrishnan, H Raja and CP Radhakrishnan took part in the meeting held on Monday.

Earlier, former deputy mayor Karate R Thiagarajan, who is also the party poll in-charge for Chennai, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur met the party workers in Kancheepuram and urged them to intensify the election work. We are confident of getting 2 to 3 councillor seats in each zone and we will have a fair representation of elected councillors, Thiagarajan told the BJP workers during the poll strategy meeting.

Meanwhile, the AIADMK district secretaries who are also holding talks with the party aspirants have urged the party high command to follow the DMK strategy under which the alliance parties should be given minimal seats.

“BJP and Congress are minor parties we want to treat the BJP like how the DMK treats its ally Congress. We have told the party high command that giving about 30 per cent of the councillor seats to BJP means conceding to DMK in urban local bodies,” said a former AIADMK MLA wishing not to be named.

“It is a fact that the national parties are minor players in Tamil Nadu. But, the BJP is growing in Tamil Nadu particularly after raking up communal issues. The recent substandard distribution of ration card materials, assault of law college student Abdul Rahim by police, death of Lavanya in Thanjavur and police crackdown against public violating lockdown norms is being highlighted by the BJP and AIADMK,” opined political commentator S Agneeswaran.