Having already kickstarted the NDA’s campaign for the key elections to the Tamil Nadu Assembly a couple of weeks back, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will thrice embark on a multi-city tour of the State in March, combining political mobilisation with high-profile project launches and temple visits.
According to the BJP, Mr Modi would visit the State on March 1, 7 and 11 to address NDA poll rallies, besides inaugurating a section of the AIIMS and visit the Tiruprankundram temple at the hilltop, which was one of the six abodes of Lord Muruga.
Mr Modi will begin his outreach in Madurai district on March 1, where he is scheduled to participate in a NDA public meeting near the Ring Road.
During the visit, the Prime Minister will inaugurate the completed blocks of the Madurai AIIMS campus and was expected to flag off the Madurai–Rameswaram special train service, besides dedicating other development projects to the nation.
BJP State President Nainar Nagendran, who is also the Legislature Party Leader, said the Prime Minister is also likely to visit the Tiruparankundram temple and offer worship during the Madurai visit. The temple atop the hillock had recently hit the headlines for all wrong reasons over the Karthigai Deepam lighting row with the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court allowing it and the police denying permission citing law and order issues, leading to tensions between the BJP and other Hindu outfits and the police.
Senior BJP leaders M Muruganandam and Raama Sreenivasan have been tasked with overseeing arrangements for Mr Modi’s Madurai visit on March one.
Mr Modi is also slated to visit the Vellore district on March 7 to address another NDA meeting after offering prayers at the Sri Lakshmi Narayani Golden Temple. The visit was earlier planned for March 6, but was postponed by a day, reports said.
The Prime Minister will return to the State on March 11 to attend NDA meetings in Tiruchy and Thanjavur. Though a final confirmation was awaited, as per the tentative plans Mr Modi would visit the Sri Ranganatha Swamy temple in Srirangam in Trichy and the Lord Brihadeeswarar temple in Thanjavur, besides addressing NDA election rallies in both the districts Before the Prime Minister’s visit, the NDA, headed by the AIADMK, which had revived its electoral ties with the saffron party, was keen to further expand the alliance fold.
The NDA at present has AIADMK, BJP, Tamil Maanila Congress of former union Shipping Minister G K Vasan, the PMK faction headed by former union Minister Anbumani Ramadoss and a few minor parties like the IJK and NJP.
Reports said talks were on to re-induct DMDK of late ator-politician Vijayakanth and the dalit outfit Puthiya Tamizhagam of Dr K Krishnasamy to draft them into the NDA fold to take on the strong and formidable ruling DMK front, which had been winning all the successive elections since 2019 with resounding margins, dealing a heavy blow to the AIADMK.
Though the Dravidian party rule has come to stay in Tamil Nadu being ruled alternatively by the DMK and the AIDMK, the presence of the fledgling TVK of actor-turned-neta Vijay, who had declared the ‘corrupt’ and ‘dynastic’ DMK as its political enemy and the ‘fascist’ BJP as its ideological adversary, would have any impact in the polls as the actor’s nascent party would be testing its electoral fortunes for the first time, remains to be seen.