The BJP in Tamil Nadu on Friday released its final list of 27 candidates contesting in the upcoming Assembly elections scheduled for April 23.
However, the party’s most popular face, K. Annamalai, was missing from the final candidate list released by the Delhi high command.
It took more than 10 days for the high command to release the list. While they tried convincing the former IPS officer and former state president to contest, sources confirm that he stood firm and refused.
According to party insiders, there are two reasons for Annamalai not taking up the offer.
One reason was genuine: that his father has been unwell and he wanted to be beside his ailing, in order to take care of his health.
Annamalai himself had revelaed this in February this year.
The second reason was that there was no “winning” constituency allotted to the BJP in the Coimbatore Lok Sabha—except for Coimbatore North, where Annamalai could pull off a victory very easily.
In the Coimbatore Lok Sabha, Annamalai had won the second highest sets of votes in the Singanallur Assembly segment in 2024, pushing the AIADMK candidate to the third place.
While the high command tried convincing Annamalai to contest from Modakurichi, one of the sitting constituencies of the BJP in the west, he refused, as he did not have a strong base in Modakurichi.
The AIADMK had allotted only a few constituencies in the western region to the BJP. Party seniors like Vanathi Srinivasan and Union Minister L. Murugan are contesting from the West—from Coimbatore North and Avinashi respectively.
Not just Annamalai—even the names of his loyalists like Karu Nagarajan, A.P. Muruganandham, Amar Prasad Reddy, Asuvathaman, and Vinoj P. Selvam are not in the list.
Sources say that Annamalai chose to stay away from the fray as he had his own apprehensions on whether the AIADMK leadership would make him lose the elections by not cooperating.
The dispute goes back to the 2024 elections, where Annamalai called Palaniswami an “illiterate”. This time, the AIADMK leadership held a firm grip over seat allocation.
Despite several rounds of persuasion, Palaniswami conceded only one constituency each in Coimbatore and Chennai, which has proved detrimental for Annamalai.
Annamalai wanted to contest either from Singanallur or Goundampalyam—both in Coimbatore Lok Sabha.
In fact, the Delhi high command even tried convincing Palaniswami to give Singanallur to Annamalai even after the AIADMK had announced its candidate.
The Hindu Munnani leader’s son will contest from Tiruppur. While Union Minister L. Murugan, Nainar Nagendran, and former Telangana governor Tamilisai Soundararajan are in the fray, Annamalai’s absence has turned into a defining moment for the BJP, which is trying to find a foothold in Tamil Nadu.
The BJP’s lotus symbol is contesting in 33 constituencies though it has been allocated only 27 seats in the alliance.
