After Madras HC's nod, PM Modi to hold roadshow in TN's Coimbatore today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a roadshow here on Monday, days after Madras High Court green-flagged the event, asking the police to allow it with reasonable conditions.

The PM will take out the roadshow in the city's Mettupalayam Road and is likely to end it at RS Puram later today. This will be his first political engagement in the state after the announcement of the seven-phase schedule of the Lok Sabha polls.

The district BJP unit had on Friday moved the HC against the local police denying permission to the PM event, citing, among others, the "communally sensitive" nature of the area, and the ongoing public exams.

However, the court had dismissed the contentions and asked the police to allow the roadshow with "reasonable conditions", such as erecting no flex boards by the organisers.

The BJP, with a newfound vigour under its aggressive state unit president K Annamalai, is making all efforts to make significant inroads into Tamil Nadu, the Dravidian heartland that has always favoured the DMK and the AIADMK, or alliances led by them in the hustings.

The saffron party is also in the process of stitching up a non-DMK, non-AIADMK alliance for the upcoming polls.

In the past, Coimbatore has elected then BJP leader and present Jharkhand Governor, CP Radhakrishnan twice to the Lok Sabha, in the late 90s. The district also elected one BJP MLA in the 2021 assembly polls, out of the total four that the party has in the 234-member TN Assembly.

Single phase polling to state's 39 Lok Sabha seats and the lone segment in Union Territory Puducherry, will be held on April 19.