With the AIADMK warming up to the BJP in Tamil Nadu, the saffron party's state president K. Annamalai is likely to step down. Annamalai, sources say, has been asked to step down, not as a “punishment”, but to help the BJP align with the AIADMK to face the 2026 Assembly elections. BJP’s Legislative Party leader and a former minister under Jayalalithaa, Nainar Nagendran is likely to replace Annamalai.
Annamalai was summoned to Delhi last week and he had an hour-long meeting with Union Home Amit Shah. During the meeting, sources say, he submitted a detailed report on BJP’s growth in Tamil Nadu, the possible strategies the party can work out in the state and the intra-party equations in the BJP in Tamil Nadu. While the Delhi high command has decided to relinquish Annamalai, he promised his “loyalty” to the party and in turn the party has promised to retain him as a key figure in the run-up to the 2026 assembly elections.
Sources say that the BJP central leadership has come up with the new strategy only to fight the DMK in the state and feels winning more numbers is crucial for the party. Days before Annamalai’s meeting with Amit Shah, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami had also called on the home minister. One of the major demands of Palanisami was to replace Annamalai, as he was considered to be the major reason for the AIADMK-BJP falling apart in 2024. The other reason for the Delhi high command planning to replace Annamalai is to set right the caste equations in the AIADMK-BJP alliance. While Palanisami and other AIADMK leaders hail from the West, Annamalai too coming from the Gounder community, the dominant caste in the West and has not helped the BJP perform in the South. Nainar Nagendran, who hails from the south from the dominant Thevar community, sources say, could help the BJP and also the AIADMK when the two parties come together.
“During his meeting with Amit Shah, Annamalai was given his due respect and there was no dressing down as his opponents say,” a senior BJP leader told THE WEEK. Annamalai’s exit, however, may not happen immediately and it will be announced a few days before a new national president is elected.
Why Annamalai is an asset to the saffron party
In December 2024, soon after his return from his study trip in London, Annamalai whipped himself six times outside his house in Coimbatore. Calling it his “penance and protest” against a sexual assault case at Anna University in Chennai, Annamalai vowed not to wear any footwear until the DMK is unseated from power.
An IPS officer who quit his dream job in Karnataka to join politics, Annamalai first contested from the Aravakurichi assembly constituency in Karur district unsuccessfully. Karur is considered to be the fiefdom of DMK’s V. Senthil Balaji. Annamalai even said that he will “break Balaji’s teeth” during the 2021 election campaign.
After Annamalai took over as the BJP chief in July 2021, there has been no looking back for either the BJP or him. The party had seen steady growth, in the western and the southern regions, which comprise over 114 assembly segments. Annamalai, immediately after he took charge in 2021, sharpened his guns at the DMK, releasing ‘DMK files’ or the details of the DMK estates. He was one of the most vociferous leaders in Tamil Nadu against the DMK even when the opposition AIADMK remained silent on issues concerning people's welfare. The BJP had a mere two per cent votes until he took charge and he increased it to a double-digit figure. It scored 11.3 per cent vote share in the 2024 elections, though the party could not win from any Lok Sabha seat. Out of the 19 parliamentary constituencies the BJP contested in alliance, in 2024, the AIADMK was pushed to the third position in at least 11 constituencies. The party which was a non-performer in the state, began getting visibility after Annamalai took over as the state president. However, there was unrest within the party as he ensured that the old guards were either silenced or shifted out from the state with governor positions.
Incidentally, on Sunday, during a press conference at the Coimbatore airport, Annamalai said that he was “ready to work as a cadre” in the party. This was just a day after his Delhi visit to meet the BJP high command. Annamalai’s comments saying that he was “no one’s enemy” and “did not oppose any leader personally” made it clear that one of Palaniswami’s conditions to warm up to the BJP was replacing Annamalai, who had called Jayalalithaa “corrupt”. During the run-up to the 2024 election, Annamalai said Palanisami will one day lose his leadership and that the AIADMK has been wiped out of the state because of him. Annamalai’s comments against the AIADMK leadership were one of the reasons for the Dravidian party breaking away from the NDA in 2023.