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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will drum up support for BJP candidates in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra on Wednesday.
PM Modi's poll campaign comes ten days ahead of polling for the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections. After a massive road show in Chennai on Tuesday, PM Narendra Modi is set to campaign in Vellore. The PM will address a public meeting in Vellore to support two partners in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)--Pattali Makkal Kachi's Dharmapuri candidate Soumya Anbumani as well as the New Justice Party's Vellore candidate AC Shanmugam, who is contesting on the BJP symbol. In 2019, the DMK-led alliance swept the Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu, winning 38 of the 39 seats. DMK, which is contesting 22 seats, leads an eight-party alliance that includes the Congress, which is contesting 9 seats; the CPI(M) and the CPI that are contesting 2 seats each; the Indian Muslim League, which has fielded a lone candidate; the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, which is contesting 2 seats, the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which has fielded a lone candidate; and the Kongunadu Makkal Desia Katchi (KMDK), whose candidate will contest on the DMK symbol. AIADMK, which is leading an alliance of four parties in the Lok Sabha, will contest 34 seats while its partners Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam will contest 5, the Puthiya Tamilagam and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) one each. However, the latter two parties will contest the polls on the AIADMK symbol. BJP, which is contesting 23 seats, will go into the polls with nine other partners; including the Pattali Makkal Katchi on 10 seats, Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar) on 3 seats, former Tamil Nadu chief minister and AIADMK leader O Pannerselvam, who is contesting as an Independent; Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMU), headed by TTV Dhinakaran, on 2 seats, and the Indhiya Jananayaga Katchi, Puthiya Needhi Katchi and Tamizhaga Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam on one seat each. The latter three parties are contesting under BJP's banner. After his rally in Vellore, PM Modi will also visit Maharashtra to campaign in Nagpur's Ramtek constituency in support of the Shiv Sena (ruling Eknath Shinde faction) candidate Raju Parwe. Maharashtra has 48 Lok Sabha seats, the second-largest after Uttar Pradesh. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 23 out of 25 seats it contested in alliance with the undivided Shiv Sena. Elections to the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra will be held in five phases on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, and May 20. (ANI)
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