Tamil Nadu Prime Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, Senior Deputy Minister O Panneerselvam and senior cabinet colleagues were at the airport to greet Amit Shah.
AIADMK cadres and officials and BJP workers gathered at Chennai airport to receive the Union minister.
In a surprise move, the Union Interior Minister got out of his vehicle and walked down the road to greet the supporters who had gathered at the airport. He waved his hands at the BJP and AIADMK cadres that were lined up along the road outside the airport.
Amit Shah will dedicate the new water reservoir to the people that will serve the needs of Chennai residents and lay the foundation stones for various other projects, the Tamil Nadu government said.
The new reservoir built with an outlay of Rs 380 million will be dedicated to a function in Kalaivanar Arangam here, chaired by the prime minister.
Shah will also lay the foundations for Phase II of Chennai Metro Rail with an outlay of Rs 61,843 crore; Rs 1,620 crore elevated highway project in Coimbatore; expansion of the Chennai Trade Center (Rs 309 crore); Indian Oil Corporation Petroleum Terminal in Vallur (Rs 900 crore); Rs 1,400 crore lubrication plant; Rs 900 crore terminal in the port of Kamarajar; and a 406 million rupee check dam with gates across the Cauvery River in Karur district.
Amit Shah is also scheduled to meet with the Tamil Nadu BJP officials and cadres to push them forward before the 2021 assembly elections. His visit comes shortly after the NDA’s electoral victory in the Bihar assembly elections.
The head of the Tamil Nadu BJP unit, L Murugan, had previously claimed that Shah’s visit will strike fear in the minds of opposition parties.
His visit comes amid the alleged break between the BJP and the ruling AIADMK over the ‘Vel Yatra‘. The AIADMK government has denied permission for the yatra to qualify the measure as “vote bank policy based on religion.” But the BJP has gone ahead with the program, seeking arrests wherever they have been detained.
(With inputs from the agencies)
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