Chennai:
The BJP on Saturday elected Nainar Nagenthiran as the President of its Tamil Nadu unit.
Mr Nagendran, a three-time MLA from Tirunelveli, replaces K Annamalai in the top job and his first job will be to jumpstart the party’s fortunes in next year’s Assembly election – in a state that has historically always rejected the BJP and its brand of muscular nationalism.
His job will possibly be made easier by the party also announcing a renewed alliance with the main opposition in the state – the AIADMK. Mr Nagendran is a former member of that party; he won the Tirunelveli seat in 2001 and 2011 on an AIADMK ticket before he switched camps.
It has been widely speculated that removing Mr Annamalai as head of the BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit was a non-negotiable for the AIADMK to return to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
Mr Annamalai and the Dravidian party have a hostile relationship; the BJP leader has openly questioned the need to ally with the AIADMK and, according to the latter, publicly defamed its iconic past leaders, including ex-chief ministers J Jayalalithaa and MG Ramachandran.
However, BJP sources have told NDTV Mr Annamalai will be reassured the party does not view his ‘sacking’ as punishment, but part of an attempt to expand its footprint in the state. He will also be told a bigger role may still await him, either in the party or at the centre.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who announced the renewed alliance with the AIADMK, underlined those soothing words for Mr Annamalai in an X post, hailing the Tamil leader’s “commendable accomplishments” in helping the party grow in the southern state.
Meanwhile, Mr Shah also played down talk that the tie-up with the AIADMK will hamper the BJP in any way, should the two parties manage to upset Tamil Nadu’s Dravidian applecart.
Renewal of the alliance came with no conditions or strings attached, he said.
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“AIADMK had no conditions and demands (and) we will not interfere in their internal matters… this alliance is going to be beneficial for both NDA and AIADMK,” the BJP leader said.
The BJP and AIADMK were allies for the 2019 general and 2021 Assembly elections but the alliance failed. In 2019 the BJP was routed and the AIADMK won one of 39 seats, as the DMK, the Congress, and its allies claimed the remaining 38. And in 2021 the DMK’s alliance swept 159 of the state’s 234 Assembly constituencies, an improvement of 61 from five years earlier.
