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Tamilisai Soundararajan, the Bharatiya Janata Party's candidate for South Chennai commenced her election campaigned in the Ekkatuthangal area of Chennai district on Tuesday.
Expressing confidence in the electorate, Soundararajan emphasized the need for infrastructural development in the city. "People are assuring me that they will vote for us. They (DMK) have not concentrated on building infrastructure, but only on words. When rains hit the city, it suffers a flood situation. After we come to power, we will build good infra to make Chennai free of waterlogging and floods," Tamilisai Soundararajan said. Tamilisai Soundarajan, who quit her post as Telangana Governor, rejoined the Bharatiya Janata Party in Tamil Nadu on March 20. Highlighting the forthcoming support from high-profile BJP leaders, Soundararajan announced the arrival of Home Minister Amit Shah to Chennai. "Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be coming to Chennai to conduct a meeting of booth-level workers. We are lucky that PM Modi will also be visiting Chennai and holding a roadshow here. This will strengthen our campaign and we will definitely win," Tamilisai Soundararajan said. Earlier, Soundararajan hit out at the Congress and the DMK on the Katchatheevu Island issue, accusing them of "donating it for their personal gains". The South Chennai BJP candidate also alleged that the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M Karunanidhi, was 'threatened' of action against him by the Centre if "he would have not donated the island" to Sri Lanka. "Because of the misgovernance of M Karunanidhi, there were allegations of corruption against him. Madam Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister. So there was an inquiry commission that proved that corruption had happened in Tamil Nadu. So to save themselves from the corruption charges they donated the Kachchatheevu for their own interests. The central government was pinpointing that if 'you are not donating the island, the centre will take action against you' and thus they donated sentiments of the Tamilian fishermen only to safeguard themselves," she said. Tamilisai also alleged that the previous governments- both in the state and at the centre failed to safeguard the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu. The decades-old territorial and fishing rights dispute around Katchatheevu Island has been brought back into the limelight with the BJP and the opposition engaging in a war of words over the issue. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday targeted the DMK over the Katchatheevu island issue, alleging the ruling party of Tamil Nadu did nothing to safeguard the state's interests. South Chennai will see a high voltage clash with incumbent DMK MP T Sumathy up against Soundarajan and former AIADMK MP J Jayavardhan, who won from here in 2014. The election for 543 Lok Sabha seats in the country will be held in seven phases starting April 19. Nearly 97 crore voters are eligible to cast votes in the general election. All 39 seats in Tamil Nadu will vote in a single phase on April 19 and the counting of votes will be held on June 4. Tamil Nadu ranks fifth in terms of Lok Sabha seats, with 39 seats, including 32 unreserved seats and seven reserved for SC candidates. In the 2019 elections, the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance secured an overwhelming victory, winning 38 out of 39 seats. In 2019, DMK won 23 Lok Sabha seats with a 33.2 per cent vote share, Congress bagged 8 seats with a 12.9 per cent vote and CPI won two seats in Tamil Nadu. (ANI)
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