Sonia Gandhi (file photo)
The high-pitched campaign in Tamil Nadu for the April 24 Lok Sabha polls is all set to raise the poll pulse when leaders of national parties, including Sonia Gandhi and
Narendra Modi, address a series of rallies across the state. (
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The leaders are known for going all guns blazing, trading charges in speeches laced with epithets and jibes, which are sure to push up poll fever.
Ms Gandhi, carrying on with the task of leading her party towards a good show in the absence of a pre-poll alliance after DMK snapped ties last year, will address an election rally at Nagercoil on April 16, while Mr Modi will embark on a series of public meetings at various places for BJP candidates, as well as those of allies.
Mr Modi is launching his campaign in Chennai tomorrow.
BJP patriarch L K Advani is also arriving in Chennai even as CPI(M) leaders Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury and Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar will canvass votes for the Left party.
The arrival of the national leaders is expected to further heat up the already blazing campaign in Tamil Nadu being led by the traditional arch rivals DMK and AIADMK.
The leaders of the two parties M Karunanidhi and his son M K Stalin and Chief Minister
J Jayalalithaa are travelling the length and breadth of the state, with their heavy rhetoric.
BJP, hoping to capitalise on 'Modi wave' - he had addressed two well-attended rallies in September last and February this year - has set an eye for a better performance and roped in local paties, including DMDK which has a good vote share.
The saffron party had drawn a blank in Tamil Nadu in the last two parliamentary polls and the addresses by Mr Modi and other leaders are aimed at reversing the trend. (
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Congress, for its part, has been pushed to a corner, prompting the party high command to field candidates for all the 39 seats in the state, besides union territory of Puducherry, even as the top guns of the state unit, including P Chidambaram and G K Vasan opted out of the electoral race.
Ms Gandhi is expected to make a strong pitch for her party candidates, putting before the electorate the achievements of two successive UPA dispensations at the Centre.