BJP national president Amit Shah on Saturday reiterated that it was important to strengthen the party in seven coastal States, including Tamil Nadu, for sustaining the good work of the Narendra Modi government .
“Be the messenger of Mr. Modi and the BJP, and enrol 100 members each from the 60,000 booths in Tamil Nadu,” he told party men at a public meeting held at Maraimalainagar on the outskirts of Chennai.
He told them to enrol themselves though the toll free number created for the membership campaign.
Mr. Shah said if the BJP was able to enrol 60 lakh new members, it could put an end to the family rule in Tamil Nadu politics and secure status and honour for the Tamils living across the globe, including in Sri Lanka.
“The State has been ruled alternatively by the AIADMK and the DMK. If you ensure 60 lakh additional membership, I promise that the BJP will rule the State,” he said.
Mr. Shah asserted that he had decided to strengthen the party in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, West Bengal and Assam.
Reiterating that he was not here to speak politics, but to open his mind with the people of Tamil Nadu, Mr. Shah said when the BJP would seek the votes of the people in the next elections, it would come with a clean image and without any corruption charges.
Reacting to the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s poser on the ongoing standoff between India and Pakistan, he said if Pakistan fired from its gun, India would respond through the cannon.
Union Minister of State for surface transport and shipping Pon. Radhakrishnan said Tamil Nadu had benefited more from the six-month rule of Mr. Modi than decades of the Dravidian rule.
“Tamil Nadu is able to increase the water level in Mullaperiyar Dam only after the BJP came to power at the Centre,” he said, adding that the BJP alone could find a permanent solution to the problems of the Tamil fishermen.
BJP national secretary P. Muralidhar Rao said that in the six months, the NDA government had enhanced the status of the Tamil language and appreciation for the Tamil savant Tiruvalluvar and his work ‘Tirukural’ at the national level.
Powerful PMMr. Modi had proved that he was a powerful Prime Minister by securing the release of five Tamil fishermen sentenced to death in Sri Lanka.
