Chennai: Tamil Nadu BJP president Ok. Annamalai confirmed Friday that he was not within the race to turn into the subsequent state occasion chief. Sources within the BJP confirmed that there can be a change within the occasion’s state management on 9 April after a go to by Telangana BJP president and Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy and a gathering with occasion leaders in Chennai.
Talking to reporters at Coimbatore Worldwide Airport, Annamalai stated, “In BJP, it isn’t like individuals submit their nominations and contest for the state president put up. We are going to unanimously elect an individual because the chief. So, the place is the query of contesting then? That’s why I stated I’m not within the competitors.”
Talking to ThePrint on situation of anonymity, a senior chief in state BJP stated that they’d been knowledgeable in regards to the management change earlier. “Annamalai opted out of the race, and it’s most certainly Nainar Nagendran who is ready to turn into the brand new president of the Tamil Nadu BJP. It’s purely due to the caste equation,” they stated.
Annamalai comes from the Gounder neighborhood, an OBC neighborhood dominant within the Western area of Tamil Nadu, whereas Nainar Nagendran comes from the Mukkulathor, a gaggle of the Kallar, Maravar, and Adamudaiyar castes, a dominant neighborhood within the southern area of Tamil Nadu.
The senior chief stated that the occasion was contemplating the choice to make Nainar Nagendran the president of the occasion was to strengthen its base within the southern area and to make sure a clean relationship with the AIADMK. Nainar Nagendran, a MLA from the Tirunelveli constituency, is a former AIADMK chief who joined BJP in August 2017. He’s the chief of the BJP legislature occasion in Tamil Nadu.
The event comes every week after AIADMK common secretary Edappadi Ok Palaniswami and senior AIADMK leaders met Union Residence Minister Amit Shah at his residence in Delhi to revive the ties forward of the upcoming meeting elections. Tamil Nadu is scheduled to go to the polls subsequent 12 months.
Though AIADMK denies it’s in talks with the BJP on document, Shah, talking at a information summit on 28 March, confirmed that the BJP is in talks with AIADMK to revive its ties in Tamil Nadu.
AIADMK and BJP joined palms after the demise of former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa in 2016 and contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and 2021 meeting elections collectively. Nevertheless, they broke the ties earlier than the 2024 Lok Sabha election and contested independently.
With AIADMK formally severing its ties with BJP in September 2023, it was Annamalai who first stated that his occasion would go alone within the 2024 and 2026 polls in March 2023.
On Friday, when requested about it, BJP common secretary Rama Sreenivasan stated that the nationwide management would resolve on its Tamil Nadu management.
Whereas there have been speculations that Annamalai was eliminated to fulfill the AIADMK, senior chief at AIADMK camp instructed ThePrint that it was not even within the listing of calls for.
“We didn’t ask to vary him. We simply conveyed this to the nationwide leaders to make sure that Annamalai doesn’t criticise our occasion leaders, which might backfire on us within the state,” the senior chief from the western area instructed ThePrint.
Additionally Learn: Flogging, going barefoot—Annamalai should endure ache as Modi-Shah’s Tamil Nadu priorities change
Annamalai opted to remain out
On Friday, in response to questions from reporters, Annamalai stated he wouldn’t touch upon whether or not the change in management was linked to a doable alliance between AIADMK and BJP. He stated he would proceed to work as a cadre of the occasion.
Requested if he’s being elevated to the Union Minister put up, Annamalai stated that he is not going to depart Tamil Nadu.
Sources in Tamil Nadu BJP stated that the nationwide management’s makes an attempt to retain Annamalai because the BJP president had been in useless as a result of he was not eager on the alliance with the AIADMK, which was in opposition to the needs of the nationwide management.
“Regardless of his views in opposition to the choice of the nationwide management, the leaders satisfied him to proceed because the state president, suggesting to type a committee to carry talks with the AIADMK, with out involving him instantly into the method,” one other senior chief and a detailed aide of Annamalai instructed ThePrint. “Nevertheless, he was very cussed to not have an alliance with the AIADMK.”
After EPS met Amit Shah at his residence, Annamalai additionally went to Delhi and met the nationwide leaders. In response to sources, Annamalai gave an in depth report on AIADMK’s declining vote share within the consecutive elections to assist his level.
“Nevertheless, nationwide management was agency in having an alliance with AIADMK to make inroads in Tamil Nadu,” Annamalai’s aide stated, including that it’s how the lifetime of a karyakarta is.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
Additionally Learn: IIT-Madras director has an ally who backs his cow urine idea. TN BJP ex-chief Soundararajan
