(LiveMint)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will soon form the government in Tamil Nadu, party president Amit Shah said at a meeting of party workers in Chennai on Monday attended by BJP members from Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
Shah’s claim comes against the backdrop of the party having no representation in the assembly and only one MP from the state. The BJP is trying to strengthen itself in South India and also forge alliances with regional parties ahead of the 2019 general elections.
“The discussions regarding forging alliance with parties in the state will happen around September-October,” Shah said.Earlier in the day, in a major embarrassment to the BJP, social media was trending with #GoBackAmitShah with over 140,000 tweets. In April, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to Chennai to inaugurate Defence Expo 2018, the outpouring of dissent had found reflection on social media too, with #GoBackModi trending with over 600,000 tweets.