PM Narendra Modi to visit Tamil Nadu on Sunday; may discuss politics with AIADMK

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Tamil Nadu on Sunday to inaugurate the last stretch of Chennai Metro's Phase-I project and lay the foundation stone for various development projects, just a few months before the states goes to its most crucial assembly elections in recent years.

Though there is no scheduled meeting so far with anyone, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam may get to talk to him for a few minutes as “they will be with him” throughout his three-hour-long visit to Chennai, informed sources said.

Modi will inaugurate the 9-km corridor connecting Washermanpet with Wimco Nagar, one of the congested areas in the city, while laying the foundation stone for an ambitious project that envisages linking River Cauvery with Gundaru. Opening of the 9-km stretch completes the first phase of the Chennai Metro, whose construction began in 2009.

Modi's visit is significant since it comes close on the heels of V K Sasikala, a close confidante of late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, returning to Tamil Nadu with a bang after completing her four-year prison term in a disproportionate assets (DA) case.

Sasikala's entry is expected to cause confusion in the AIADMK for the party was controlled indirectly by her when Jayalalithaa was the Chief Minister. The BJP has announced that it will contest the assembly elections in alliance with the AIADMK but broad contours of the tie-up like seat-sharing are yet to be discussed.

BJP, which was hoping to piggyback on Tamil superstar Rajinikanth, is working towards bringing together the ruling AIADMK and its splinter group, AMMK, led by Sasikala's nephew T T V Dhinakaran, for an electoral understanding.

DH had on January 20 reported that BJP has mooted a proposal that Dhinakaran's AMMK will join the AIADMK-led alliance accepting Palaniswami as the Chief Ministerial face. However, the source had then added that incumbent Palaniswami, who has established his position within the government and the party, is red-flagging the proposal.