Within hours of the announcement of the electoral alliance between the BJP and the AIADMK for the 2021 Assembly election, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday urged State BJP leaders and party members to work hard to ensure that the party could capture power in Tamil Nadu in the next five years.
Mr. Shah held a marathon meeting with senior party functionaries at a private hotel in Chennai. The meeting, which began after his official engagement at Kalaivanar Arangam in the evening, continued past 11 p.m.
Sources who attended the meeting told The Hindu that the former BJP national president had pointed out how the party, which was previously not a major force in several States like Tripura and Bihar, was able to emerge as a ruling party, either on its own or through a coalition arrangement.
Mr. Shah was confident of replicating the party’s success in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu during the Assembly poll next summer, and also in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, if party members worked tirelessly to strengthen the organisation, sources said.
When some leaders expressed dissatisfaction over the alliance with the ruling AIADMK, he told them that the party high-command would take care of it. “You strengthen the party organisation and booth committees,” he said.
BJP women’s wing national president Vanathi Sriniavan told presspersons that there would be a “coalition government” in Tamil Nadu after the poll. “The BJP will certainly be part of the government,” she said.
K.T. Raghavan, another party leader, said Mr Shah gave inputs on how party cadres must work on improving the BJP organisation and its functioning in Tamil Nadu.
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