PM Narendra Modi to launch Amma two-wheeler scheme in Chennai today

CHENNAI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to Chennai on Saturday to launch the state government's scheme for a Rs 25,000 subsidy for women to buy two wheelers.

The launch of the scheme - Amma Two-wheeler Scheme - has been timed to coincide with the birth anniversary of AIADMK matriarch J Jayalalithaa who had first promised the 50 percent subsidy scheme in the run-up to the 2016 assembly elections.

PM Modi's Chennai visit comes days after Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam triggered speculation by saying that the BJP's top leadership, particularly the PM, had a role to play in the merger of the AIADMK's two factions; one led by him and another by Chief Minister E Palaniswami.

Panneerselvam, who is also popularly known as OPS, had said last week it was the nudge from PM Modi that led him to agree to the merger of the two factions created after J Jayalalithaa's death in December 2016.

"He (PM Modi) said that you (Panneerselvam) could join (merge the faction) to save the party and under the present circumstances, the two [factions] should merge to save the party," Panneerselvam had said.

The PM had met with the leaders of both factions ahead of the merger, telegraphing the BJP's desire to end divisions within the regional party it believes can help it gain some ground in Tamil Nadu and also in the Rajya Sabha, where it is in a minority.