BJP president Amit Shah on Tuesday predicted that the AIADMK-led National Democratic Alliance will win over 30 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu, and the ‘formidable’ alliance would continue for the subsequent election to the State Legislative Assembly. He claimed that the NDA would win more than 300 Parliamentary constituencies in the country.

Mr. Shah, who criss-crossed Thoothukudi, Pudukottai and Coimbatore via helicopter and by road for electioneering, sought to dispel the perception that the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre had not released enough funds for Tamil Nadu. “Under the 13th Finance Commission, when the Congress and the DMK were in power at the Centre, they allocated only ₹95,540 crore for Tamil Nadu, whereas the BJP government, in the last four years, has allocated ₹5,42,068 crore,” he claimed.

Friendly face

At all the three venues where he addressed public meetings, canvassing for BJP candidates Tamilisai Soundararajan (Thoothukudi), H. Raja (Sivaganga) and C.P. Radhakrishnan (Coimbatore), he projected the BJP as a party that was friendly towards Tamil Nadu.

Mr. Shah, who had last year dubbed Tamil Nadu the “most corrupt” State, gave a clean chit to the Edappadi K. Palaniswami government. He said that with the support of the voters, good governance will continue in the State and at the Centre.

On the other hand, he sought to turn the tables on the Secular Progressive Alliance by saying that the people could choose between good candidates fielded by the AIADMK-BJP alliance and the likes of Kanimozhi, A. Raja (both from the DMK) and Karti Chidambaram (Congress) who, he claimed, were ‘tainted’. “While the first two had looted several crores, the other is only out on bail,” he said, without elaborating further, and asked the people to decide.

He said that though only one BJP MP — Pon Radhakrishnan — was elected from Tamil Nadu in 2014, he was made a Minister of State, and the party gave a Cabinet berth to Nirmala Sitharaman, who hails from the State. “Such is the gesture of Narendra Modi towards Tamil Nadu,” he said.

Jibe at Rahul

In Coimbatore, he asked the voters if they would vote for Mr. C.P. Radhakrishnan to make Mr. Modi the Prime Minister again. He also wanted to know if the government should retaliate against Pakistan following the terror attack targeting CRPF jawans in Pulwama or engage in talks with the neighbouring country, as suggested by ‘Pappu’ Rahul (Congress president Rahul Gandhi) and DMK leader M.K. Stalin. The GST regime too was amended based on feedback, he said.

Lists projects

In Tirumaiyam in Pudukottai, he harped on various projects for Tamil Nadu initiated by the BJP government in recent times, such as the Defence Corridor, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Madurai, the East Coast Road project, a proposal to set up a separate Ministry for Fishermen Welfare and welfare schemes for the poor.

“The BJP would return to power and will continue to stand by Tamil Nadu,” he said. Likewise, he said various schemes had been sanctioned for the development of the western region, including Tirupur, Salem, Pollachi and Coimbatore, and in the south, Madurai and Virudhunagar.

Seven crore poor families were provided domestic gas connections and toilets were constructed for another eight crore people. Electricity connections were provided to 2.34 crore people across the country, he added.