Chess Olympiad: BJP men stick PM Modi’s photos on TN govt’s billboards

CHENNAI: The state unit of the BJP started sticking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pictures on the Tamil Nadu government’s publicity billboards for the 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad to be held in Mamallapuram from July 28.
The billboards have the images of chief minister M K Stalin and Chess Olympiad mascot Thambi.
State president of sports and skill development cell of the party Amar Prasad Reddy and a couple of party members started sticking the PM photos on the billboards.
“The billboards on the Chess Olympiad without the PM’s image is an insult to the nation,” said Reddy. He said it was the PM who gave the opportunity for Tamil Nadu to hoist the international event in Mamallapuram, a UNESCO world heritage site.
“So, we want to stick the image of the PM on the publicity materials across the state. We have also asked functionaries of our cell to follow suit and paste the image of the PM on all Chess Olympiad bills boards. We asked them to do it without masking (covering) any other image on the publicity material,” said Reddy, who put up the PM image on the billboards in Kotturpuram, Saidapet, T Nagar and surrounding areas in Chennai.
Earlier, he took to social media and posted a video of his pasting the image of the PM on the Chess Olympiad billboards. “Let me remind CM @stalin that our PM @narendramodi Avl is the sole representative of this Nation. Here we begin!!!,” he tweeted with the video.
Shortly the DMK functionaries and Dravidian stock hit back. “It was the TN government that took all efforts to secure the opportunity to host the Chess Olympiad and make all arrangements for the event. The TN government has spent around Rs 100 crore to make an elaborate arrangement for the event,” DMK spokesperson R Rajiv Gandhi tweeted. He stated that Narendra Modi was invited to the inaugural ceremony of international competition as the PM of the country.
It may be recalled that BJP men walked out of a Chess Olympiad torch rally in Coimbatore for not mentioning the name of the PM by the organisers.