Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Chennai: Amid intense speculation about his possible stepping down, Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai on Friday said he was “not in the race” to be the next chief of the state unit with organisational elections set to be completed soon, while maintaining that there was no contest for the post as its occupant is elected unanimously.
Annamalai’s statement only added yet another dimension to the confusion prevailing in Tamil Nadu BJP on his continuance after the saffron party held initial talks with AIADMK for a possible alliance to contest the 2026 assembly elections.
“There is no contest to elect the state leader in Tamil Nadu. We will sit together and select the leader unanimously. But I am not in the race. Let me clarify this because there is huge speculation about my visits to Delhi,” Annamalai told reporters outside Coimbatore Airport.
The BJP is in the process of electing chiefs for 13 state units, including Tamil Nadu, and it is likely to be completed in a week’s time with election in-charge G Kishan Reddy expected to be in Chennai on April 9.
Asked to comment whether he was being replaced because of the alliance talks with the AIADMK, Annamalai remained non-committal saying he was not authorised to speak on the subject. “I will speak in detail after the new President (is appointed),” he added.
While speculation that Annamalai could be replaced is intense, sources say nothing can be concluded until Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu on April 6.
They told DH that Annamalai’s statement should be viewed simply as the natural end of his three-year tenure as the BJP chief, which was extended keeping in mind the organisational elections, and the selection of a new president for the state unit.
It is not the first time that Annamalai said he will quit as state chief and work for the party as an “ordinary cadre” if the Central leadership decided to align with AIADMK. He made similar remarks at an internal meeting in March 2023.
The AIADMK and BJP came together for an alliance in 2019, three years after the death of J Jayalalithaa who had kept the saffron party at an arm’s length distance for at least a decade but never won an election so far.
AIADMK leaders have been quite vocal about BJP being a “burden” for them especially because it has alienated the minorities from the party.