Periscope: Amit Shah to visit Lakshadweep this week

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah’s efforts to expand the party continue. He will spend two days in the Lakshadweep islands (May 16-18) to expand the BJP’s footprint. Shah has already announced he will work especially hard to win the 120 Lok Sabha seats where the party had lost in 2014. In this connection, he has already visited Jammu and was scheduled to travel to Tamil Nadu but had to change his plans because Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Sri Lanka at the time. He will visit Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to set up booth-level units of the party where none exist and energise those units which exist but may have fallen into disrepair. Kerala and the neighbouring Lakshadweep islands are an important region where the BJP is trying to establish itself.

 
Thalaiva to meet fans from today
 
After cancelling meetings with his fans last month, actor Rajinikanth is reportedly set to start meeting them from Monday. Members of his fan clubs from various districts will get to meet the actor and take pictures with him in Chennai. When plans of his meetings with the fans emerged early in April, it had given rise to speculation that he was planning an entry into politics. But, his fan club members dismissed them and said it was regular practice for the actor to meet his fans once every few years ahead of the release of a film. Ahead of his meetings, Congress leader Nagma met the actor for a 90-minute interaction earlier this month.

 

Puducherry’s Budget on Friday
 
The Puducherry Legislative Assembly Budget session will begin from Tuesday. The session will begin with the customary address of the Lt Governor Kiran Bedi. Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, who holds the finance portfolio, is expected to present the Budget for 2017-18 on Friday.
 
It may be noted that a vote on account moved by the CM for Rs 1,481 crore was passed on March 30. Later, the State Planning Board meeting under the Lt Governor was convened on April 29 and the annual plan allocation for Puducherry was finalised at Rs 6,945 crore.

 
The Budget session is expected to be stormy with the opposition likely to rake up issues such as the deteriorating law and order situation, disbursement of salary to employees of different corporations and reinstatement of the daily rated employees of the Public Works Department.