Amit Shah to visit Tamil Nadu in July; third visit to state in three months

Chennai: In his third visit to the state in three months, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will travel to Tamil Nadu in the second week of July to meet with office-bearers of the state BJP unit and review the party’s preparedness for the 2026 assembly elections.

Shah is also expected to meet AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami and senior leaders from the party to discuss the strategy to defeat the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) in the polls.

Sources told DH that the AIADMK has also fast-tracked its preparations for the crucial assembly polls with Palaniswami planning to go on a state-wide tour from July-end or early August to rejuvenate cadres on the ground and launch a frontal attack on the DMK government.

Palaniswami, who largely works out of his residence in Salem in western Tamil Nadu rather than from Chennai, plans to visit all 37 districts before the elections, the sources said, adding that a detailed tour plan is being worked out.

Shah, who was the mastermind behind bringing the AIADMK back into the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) fold, will be in Chennai tentatively on July 8, a BJP leader said.

This is the third time that Shah will be in Tamil Nadu since April when he camped in Chennai for two days to finalise the alliance with the AIADMK and visited Madurai earlier this month to address party functionaries.

“The July visit is expected to be significant since the Tamil Nadu BJP chief will have his team ready by then. Shah will not just meet them but is likely to harp on unity within the BJP and forging a working relationship with AIADMK and other alliance partners,” the leader told DH.

The leader added that the Central leadership believes that the alliance lacks cohesion and needs to work on the ground to make it work and Shah will address this issue during his Chennai visit.

“While addressing party functionaries in Madurai on June 8, Shah did speak about differences within the partymen on the alliance with the AIADMK and asked them to be united. He is likely to repeat the message and ask partymen to work towards the alliance’s win,” another leader said.

The sources added that Shah and Palaniswami are likely to meet and discuss the way forward for the alliance as polls are less than a year away.

“We don’t know whether seat-sharing will be discussed during this meeting, but the broad contours of the alliance and its cohesion will be discussed,” the leader added.

The visit by Shah also comes amid differences between the BJP and AIADMK over a host of issues, including divergent views on the composition of the government to be formed if the combine wins the polls.

While the AIADMK has always maintained that only the party will form the government in the event of the alliance emerging victorious, and that the understanding was only for contesting the polls, the BJP feels otherwise, with many asserting that 2026 will witness the ushering in of a coalition era in the state.