New Delhi: A number of leaders from Tamil Nadu, including 15 former MLAs and an ex-MP, joined the BJP here on Wednesday as the ruling party looks to strengthen its presence in the southern state in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections.

Most of these leaders are from the AIADMK, a former BJP ally in the state, and the joining took place in the presence of Union ministers Rajeev Chandrasekhar and L Murugan besides the state BJP president K Annamalai.

Welcoming them, Annamalai said that they bring a wealth of experience to the BJP and want to strengthen the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he is coming back to power for a straight third term.

They have been seeing the happenings in Tamil Nadu, he said in an apparent swipe at the state's ruling DMK and its main rival AIADMK.

"Tamil Nadu is going the Bharatiya Janata Party way," claimed the young leader whose strong position on his party's ideological stand in the Dravidian state and sharp criticism of the entrenched parties has won him his share of admirers and detractors.

Chandrasekhar said the joining at such a big scale shows Modi's popularity in a state like Tamil Nadu, where the BJP has traditionally been not a big force.

Noting that Modi has projected that the BJP will win 370 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha and the NDA will cross 400, he claimed that many of these new seats will come from Tamil Nadu.

"It is clear that every citizen of India wants the transformation of the last 10 years to continue," he said.

(This is an agency copy. Except the headline, Republic Digital has not edited the article)