BJP in-charge calls on Chief Minister to discuss LS poll preparations

Bharatiya Janata Party discusses campaign plans for Lok Sabha polls in Puducherry with Chief Minister N. Rangasamy.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s in-charge for the Union Territory, Nirmal Kumar Surana, on Saturday called on Chief Minister N. Rangasamy to “discuss” preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. 

“I discussed with the Chief Minister the campaign plans for Lok Sabha polls to ensure the victory of NDA candidate from Puducherry. We have not discussed about the candidate. The lone seat from Puducherry is very important for us,” Mr. Surana told The Hindu. 

Important national leaders including Union Home Minister Amit Shah and party president J. P Nadda will be visiting Puducherry in the days to come, he said.

At the meeting, Home Minister A. Namassivayam said, “Mr. Rangasamy is the head of the NDA in Puducherry. We consulted him on the poll preparations. We will announce the nominee and the party which he belongs in the future. There was no discussion on candidate.”

The BJP is having an alliance with Mr. Rangasamy’s All India N R Congress (AINRC) and runs a coalition government in U.T. for more than two and a half years. From about a year now, the BJP leaders have been openly staking claim for the seat and national leaders, including Union Minister of State for Fisheries L. Murugan, have been making regular visits to Puducherry as part of poll preparations. 

The Chief Minister and his party leaders have remained silent on the Lok Sabha elections. The AINRC had won the seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. In the last parliamentary elections, the party fielded a candidate but lost the seat to Congress nominee.

Meanwhile, Mr. Namassivayam, while speaking at a party core committee meeting on Saturday, has urged workers to start preparations for the LS polls. “You have to go with confidence. This seat is important for us and it is a winnable seat,” he said in his address.