Piyush Goyal’s visit to Tamil Nadu delayed

Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, who is in-charge of Tamil Nadu BJP, has deferred his visit scheduled for Friday to the state to kick-start alliance talks.

Goyal and his deputy C T Ravi, a Karnataka BJP MLA, were scheduled to be here on Friday to meet leaders of like-minded parties and start alliance talks. However, Goyal, sources said, has postponed his visit for Sunday as he is occupied with latest developments in the BJP including the hospitalisation of its chief Amit Shah.

The BJP, which has hardly any base in Tamil Nadu, is trying to cobble up a strong coalition with AIADMK, PMK and DMDK to take on the DMK-Congress combine, which has already announced Rahul Gandhi as their nominee for prime minister’s post.

If Goyal visits Chennai on Sunday, he will meet Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami to kick-start the talks.

Though the AIADMK is not quite popular among the people after the death of its charismatic leader J Jayalalithaa in 2016, the BJP feels it makes sense to ally with the Dravidian party since it has more than 20% of vote share. Also, roping in parties like the PMK, DMDK and a few other outfits which have influence in pockets would also help the BJP.