‘Amit Shah didn’t drop any hints’

BJP leaders, who attended various closed-door meetings with party president Amit Shah, said that he gave no hint as to which party he would prefer to ally with. “What you heard at the public meeting was the same message given to us: that a decision would be announced before 2019,” a party leader said.

The State unit was to focus on strengthening its polling booth-level structures, while the central leadership deliberated on an alliance. “We have been told to appoint in-charges at all 66,000 polling booths by the end of September,” said party leader Tamilisai Soundararajan.