Chennai:
Refusing to be drawn into the speculation surrounding K Annamalai’s removal as the Tamil Nadu president of the BJP, Union Home Minister and senior party leader Amit Shah has said Mr Annamalai still holds the post.
During a press conference on Friday announcing that the alliance between the AIADMK and the BJP was being renewed, Mr Shah was asked about reports of Mr Annamalai being removed because Edapaddi K Palaniswami did not want the tie-up to proceed until that happened. “This is not true at all. Mr Annamalai is the state president even today,” a smiling Mr Shah said, before pointing to the leader, who was seated to his left, and adding, “That is why he is sitting with me”.
AIADMK Chief Palaniswami, who was sitting to Mr Shah’s right, was smiling all along.
Pressed on the Annamalai issue again a few minutes later and asked whether he would be given a responsibility at the central level, the minister said, “Leave a few things to our party as well. Don’t worry about my party so much, we will run it well.”
Mr Shah’s comments came on a day that the BJP received only one nomination for the post of the party’s Tamil Nadu president – from Nainar Nagendran, who is the Tirunelveli MLA and the current vice-president – paving the way for him being elected unopposed. Mr Nagendran’s name was proposed by Mr Annamalai and three other senior leaders, including Mr Annamalai’s predecessor and Union Minister L Murugan, and ex-Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan.
Announcing this, Mr Shah wrote on X that Mr Annamalai’s contribution had been “unprecedented” and that the BJP would leverage his skills in the “party’s national framework”.
The Tamil Nadu BJP has received a nomination for the post of state president only from Shri @NainarBJP Ji.
As the President of the Tamil Nadu BJP unit, Shri @annamalai_k Ji has made commendable accomplishments. Whether it is carrying the policies of PM Shri @narendramodi Ji to…
— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) April 11, 2025
“The Tamil Nadu BJP has received a nomination for the post of state president only from Shri @NainarBJP Ji. As the President of the Tamil Nadu BJP unit, Shri @annamalai_k Ji has made commendable accomplishments. Whether it is carrying the policies of PM Shri @narendramodi Ji to people or the programs of the party from village to village, Annamalai Ji’s contribution has been unprecedented. The BJP will leverage Annamalai Ji’s organisational skills in the party’s national framework,” he wrote.
Condition?
While the BJP hasn’t made significant electoral gains in Tamil Nadu since Mr Annamalai was appointed the chief of the state unit in 2021, the 40-year-old is credited with giving it much more visibility.
Sources had told NDTV that when Mr Palaniswami met Mr Shah in New Delhi last month, he had insisted on Mr Annamalai’s ouster as a condition for allying with the party again. The AIADMK felt the former IPS officer, engineer and MBA had tried to undermine its primacy in the state alliance and project the BJP and himself as the principal opposition in Tamil Nadu. The fact that he criticised several AIADMK leaders only added to the reasons that the party wanted him gone.
