PM Modi's first-ever poll rally in Chennai on May 6

CHENNAI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing his first-ever election meeting in Chennai on May 6 after assuming office. The venue approved by the local authorities and cleared by the returning officer is the YMCA grounds in Nandanam in south Chennai.
It will be the PM's second public rally in Tamil Nadu after the February 2 pre-poll campaign launch by him in Coimbatore.The May 6 rally will also be his first in the heart of Chennai as earlier he addressed a meeting only in suburban Vandalur during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Police permission was denied in the past to the BJP to organize a public meeting for Modi in a central part of the city. This time police has not withheld permission for the rally in the city proper. At the Nandanam rally, the premier is expected to make a pitch for a political transformation in Tamil Nadu and projecting the BJP-led alliance as a credible alternative to the successive DMK-AIADMK rule in the state.
“We have secured all clearances to “We have secured all clearances to hold the meeting at the YMCA grounds,“ BJP national executive member C P Radhakrishnan told TOI on Friday. He said all BJP candidates and candidates of allies like the IJK would be present at the meeting for the joint campaign. “I am personally thrilled that PM would be leading a joint campaign meeting for us in the city,“ said BJP candidate K Suresh after filing his nomination from Anna Nagar. Earlier addressing a press meet, Radhakrishnan said people of Tamil Nadu were fed up with the corruption and bad governance of the DMK and the AIADMK in the past 50 years and did not believe in the promises of these parties to bring prohibition.
“The DMK had lifted the ban on liquor and the AIADMK also carried on with the Tasmac shops. Only BJP which had a proven record of implementing total Prohibition in Gujarat has the political will to do so in Tamil Nadu and would takeover river sand mining in the state if it came to power so as to generate an alternative source of revenue to compensate for the loss that would be entailed by closure of liquor outlets,“ he said.