Home Minister Amit Shah will hold consultative meetings with Tamil Nadu BJP leaders and district presidents in Chennai on Saturday evening and get a sense of the prevailing political situation in the State ahead of the Assembly polls in 2021. This meeting will be more about taking inputs from the Tamil Nadu unit, senior leaders said.
Mr. Shah’s interaction will also focus on the party’s work in the past few months and provide inputs on how to take things forward, State leaders said. “His meeting will give a fillip to the cadres in Tamil Nadu,” party state unit president L. Murugan said.
“The meeting is going to be significant because he is going to interact with a lot of the State leaders, district presidents and other leaders. Interacting with him directly up close is going to be encouraging for us,” K. Annamalai, State vice-president, told The Hindu.
He said the Tamil Nadu unit, which is pretty much a “new team”, will also explain the work being done by it and the plans for the future. “There might be some specific direction from him... he might give his inputs. Since he is more of a listener, he is likely to use this meeting to get a first-hand understanding of the current political situation in Tamil Nadu,” he said.
Among other things, the party unit is also likely to bring up the issue of appointing assembly in-charges for the election. “This is pending for more than two months. This will be important going forward for the election. Earlier, in some places candidates used to be the election in-charges for their constituencies. We have to see what Mr. Shah’s plans are,” another senior BJP leader said.
The leadership is also expected to convey its suggestions on the alliance for the election.
M.N. Raja, another vice-president of the State unit, said every move of Mr. Shah is important. “He is someone who listens to the grassroots workers and takes inputs. He will give a lot of advice and ask questions. The meeting is going to be very important for the State’s future,” he said.
Mr. Shah is also likely to hold one-on-one meetings with some leaders after the group meetings and discuss specific strategies, a source said.
Multiple party leaders said they were not sure if the Home Minister would meet actor Rajinikanth as was widely speculated in the past week. But with his tight schedule, he is unlikely to meet the actor, a source said. “Plus, why would he meet Mr. Rajinikanth at this time if he was planning to discuss politics. He would do that over the phone and video calls and unlikely in full public glare. That’s not how he operates,” another source said.
