Nainar Nagendran: The catalyst in the renewed alliance between BJP & AIADMK

Nainar Nagendran has replaced Annamalai as the new Tamil Nadu BJP president. (Courtesy: X | @NainarBJP)

The lone person to file nomination for the post of Tamil Nadu BJP presidentship, Nainar Nagendran, is the best bet the national party had to revive the alliance with the AIADMK in the state. Union Home Minister Amit Shah was in Chennai to clinch the alliance and Nagendran is expected to take charge soon.

Nagendran was a former AIADMK minister who was first elected from Tirunelveli in 2021. He was minister between 2001-06 in the J Jayalalithaa and O Panneerselvam governments. He handled Transport, Industries and Electricity portfolios. Nagendran lost the election in 2006. He is now expected to use his contacts with his former colleagues in the AIADMK to ensure smooth coordination between the two parties.

But he comes with some unwanted baggage: Nagendran was chargesheeted, along with his wife and four other relatives, in a disproportionate wealth case and searches were conducted in several of his properties in December 2010. The investigation by the Directorate of Vigilance revealed accumulation of wealth in excess of his income during his ministership.

When he won in the 2011 Assembly election, he was not made a minister. He lost in the 2016 election.

Both times (2006 and 2016), Nagendran lost by a slender margin of around 600 votes. Coming from the dominant Thevar community in southern Tamil Nadu, he wields considerable influence in the southern districts, especially in Tirunelveli-Tuticorin region.

Following the death of Jayalalithaa and factional squabbles, Nagendran joined BJP in August 2017, claiming that AIADMK had become rudderless. In the following Assembly election in 2021, Nagendran won the Tirunelveli seat for the BJP, defeating the DMK candidate by 23,107 votes. He was appointed Legislature Party leader of the BJP in the Tamil Nadu Assembly and also appointed vice-president of the state BJP unit under its president K Annamalai.

Although he contested from Ramanathapuram seat in 2019 and the Tirunelveli seat in 2024 Lok Sabha elections, he lost on both occasions.

His image is not spotless as he had threatened to chop lyricist Vairamuthu’s tongue in 2018 for controversial remarks on Andal, a saint poet. He said there would be no hesitation in killing those who spoke ill of Hinduism. Nagendran was arrested for hate speech.

During last year's Lok Sabha polls, Nagendran played a key role in the poll management of the party. His familiarity with AIADMK and its leadership is expected to iron out animosity that pervaded the relationship between the two parties since Annamalai took over the BJP state unit as its chief. Annamalai himself, two former state unit chiefs L Murugan and Pon Radhakrishnan along with state Mahila Morcha head Vanathi Srinivasan and a few others proposed his name.

Once he takes charge, he would become the 13th President of the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP. He has a tough job ahead to make the alliance work in the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly election.