K Annamalai may face the axe and be asked to step down from his position as the chief of the Tamil Nadu unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party amid a strong buzz around the latter's possible reunion with the AIADMK.
Annamalai is seen as one of the primary factors behind the fallout between the two partners in 2023. As talks of a BJP-AIADMK alliance gather pace, Annamalai may have to sacrifice the position in order to align with the party's strategy keeping caste calculations in mind.
Both Annamalai and AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami are from the Gounder community, a powerful backward community in sizable pockets of the state. Elections in Tamil Nadu are due next year and the BJP is not keen on having a Gounder as the face of both parties.
According to The Indian Express, the decision was conveyed to Annamalai during the latter's meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi last week. Annamalai met Shah soon after the Home Minister met Palaniswami where alliance talks are said to have been held.
Speaking to the media after the meeting, Annamalai said he has pledged complete loyalty to the BJP and that he was willing to work as an ordinary party cadre.
"As a cadre and leader, I have done a micro analysis and presented the same to the party’s national leaders, with proof, on the condition of the state unit now and how it should go forward," he said, refusing to discuss the possible BJP-AIADMK reunion.
The BJP, meanwhile, maintains that the development should be seen as a "recalibration" of the state unit rather than a punishment or demotion for Annamalai.
Meanwhile, Annamalai said that BJP’s long-term growth in the state continues to be his sole ambition. "I have always been clear… I did not come to politics for power, I came to make a change in Tamil Nadu politics."
BJP MLA Nainar Nagendran, a popular leader from Tirunelveli who was earlier in the AIADMK, is tipped to be the frontrunner as Annamalai's replacement as Tamil Nadu BJP chief. Nagendran belongs to the influential Thevar community, the same as J Jayalalithaa's aide VK Sasikala.
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