Modi likely to visit Tamil Nadu in September

Tiruchirappalli: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi would visit Tamil Nadu next month, a senior BJP leader said here on Friday. Modi will visit the state and address a rally in Coimbatore in the third or fourth week of September, said P Muralidhara Rao, national secretary of the party in charge of Tamil Nadu and national youth wing.

He said a state level BJP delegation would meet Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa next month to urge her to give scholarships to poor Hindu students as is being given to minority students from weaker sections. Discriminating against the poor Hindu boys would hamper communal harmony and secularism, he said. He was here to address a demonstration held by BJP to create awareness about the need to give educational assistance for poor Hindu students also. He said the campaign would be completed in all district headquarters in August and the delegation would meet the Chief Minister in September first week. Asked if the BJP expected early elections, he said the Centre itself was "unreliable and unpredictable" and he could not say anything now. He said BJP always "opposed" reservation for Dalit Christians. Asked if BJP would support bifurcation of states, he said that would be taken on case-by-case basis. PTI