Hardworking cadre of the BJP from Tamil Nadu can even reach the highest positions like Prime Minister or national president of the party, Union Home Minister Amit Shah told party functionaries at an internal meeting here on Sunday.
Mr. Shah addressed the gathering of party workers in Chennai South Parliamentary constituency and felicitated a few grassroots-level functionaries who had done good work. According to party sources, he recalled how he himself began his career as a booth-level functionary and went on to become the national president.
Similarly, he said someone from Tamil Nadu can even become the Prime Minister in the future and contrasted this with the dynastic culture followed in parties like the DMK. He urged the party cadres to work hard to ensure the victory of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in at least 25 seats in the Tamil Nadu 2024 general elections.
Party sources said Mr. Shah’s Chennai visit and the well-attended meeting in Vellore, which the BJP was considering as a potential Parliamentary constituency that it can contest in 2024 with a better chance of winning, had energised the party.
In what is perceived as a firm endorsement of K. Annamalai’s leadership in the party in Tamil Nadu, Mr. Shah, at the meeting, called him his “younger brother” who had taken the party to every village in Tamil Nadu. It can be recalled that Mr. Annamalai’s absence during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official visit to Chennai in April and his inclination around that period for the BJP to leave its alliance with the AIADMK led to speculations about his relationship with the party’s central leadership.
Mr. Annamalai had clarified that at the time, his absence was due to Mr. Modi’s suggestion that he should focus on Karnataka’s Assembly elections.
The meeting in Vellore also saw Puthiya Needhi Katchi President A.C. Shanmugam, who is in alliance with the BJP, trying to show his loyalty. Seated next to Mr. Shah, Mr. Shanmugam, in his speech, said he lost the elections from Vellore in 2014 and 2019 due to betrayal by alliance partners. He said victory at Vellore in 2024 was assured, be it for the BJP or his own party.
During his Chennai visit, Mr. Shah also had a meeting with a small group of high-profile people from the city from various fields.
