Amit Shah laments not knowing Tamil; BJP eyes 60 'winnable' seats in talks with AIADMK

Ahead of Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, Union Home Minister Amit Shah met state Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam in Chennai on Sunday to discuss seat-sharing for the polls. The BJP is contesting assembly elections in the state in alliance with ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).

The talks that started around 10 pm were on after two hours, a day after the AIADMK and the BJP initiated the parleys, PTI reported. The BJP has expectations of getting 60 seats that it had identified as "winnable". Amit Shah had earlier arrived in Tamil Nadu for an election rally. The AIADMK had earlier clinched its seat-sharing deal with ally PMK, allotting 23 seats to it.

'Sad that I cannot talk in Tamil': Amit Shah

Amit Shah spoke high of Tamil and its culture, calling it 'sweet', on a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed regret about not being able to learn the old southern language.

Addressing his party's Vijay Sankalp' rallies in Villupuram in Tamil Nadu and Karaikkal, an enclave of neighbouring Puducherry, ahead of the April 6 Assembly elections, Shah apologised to the crowd that he could not deliver his address in Tamil, although it "would have been nice" if he could do so.

"First of all, I want to say sorry that I am unable to talk in one of the oldest languages in the country, the sweet one," Shah said at the Villupuram public meeting. "Without the great Tamil culture, India's culture is incomplete," he added.

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Addressing 'Mann Ki Baat' on Sunday, PM Narendra Modi said that in the run-up to the programme, one listener Aparna Reddy asked him if there was something he missed out on during these long years as Chief Minister and Prime Minister.

"I thought about the question and felt that - it is a regret of sorts that I could not learn the world's oldest language Tamil. It is a beautiful language and popular across the world. Many people told me about the qualities of Tamil literature and the depths of Tamil poetry," the Prime Minister said.

Tamil Nadu assembly elections will be held in a single phase on April 6 and the counting of votes will be done on May 2. The term of the fifteenth legislative assembly in Tamil Nadu is ending on May 2, 2021. As many as 6,28,23,749 electors will choose candidates for the sixteenth legislative assembly in Tamil Nadu.

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(With agency inputs)