Hours later, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, in an X post, announced that the party had received only his nomination and also appreciated K. Annamalai for his commendable work as president.
“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 (sic),” Amit Shah posted on X, adding that Annamalai’s organisational skills would come to use in the party’s national framework.
Nainar Nagendran, a senior politician in the state, was the Tamil Nadu BJP unit vice president and legislative party leader from the party. He joined the BJP from AIADMK after the demise of former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa in 2017.
A cross-section of party workers in the state with whom ThePrint spoke said that Nagendran was the man who was likely to take the party closer to the people in the electoral battle.
Speaking to ThePrint, Tamil Nadu youth wing president of the party, Vinoj P. Selvam, said that an experienced and shrewd politician such as Nainar Nagendran would guide the party, helping it reach the goal of forming an NDA government in Tamil Nadu.
“Everybody follows the party’s high command’s order. Nainar anna—with his experience of working as a minister and then an MLA under former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa—we are confident that he will lead the party to victory in the 2026 assembly election,” Selvam told ThePrint.
According to political analysts in the state, Nagendran’s appointment was an attempt to appease the opposition party, the AIADMK, and consolidate the OBC votes in southern Tamil Nadu.
Political commentator Priyan said his appointment would perhaps ensure that all talks between the AIADMK and the BJP, after the announcement of their alliance Friday, would go smoothly in the election run-up.
“Annamalai was one of the hurdles for the AIADMK. It [dropping him as president] was one of the demands from the AIADMK’s side to join hands with the BJP,” Priyan said.
A political analyst and assistant professor in the political science department of Hindustan University, V. Sunilkumar, said that it was an attempt to consolidate the votes of the Mukkulathor caste, an umbrella term for the Maravar, Agamudayar and Kallar castes and also known as Thevars, in southern Tamil Nadu.
“After former AIADMK leader O. Panneerselvam, T.T.V. Dhinakaran and former CM J. Jayalalithaa’s close aide V.K. Sasikala got ousted from the party, the Mukkulathoor vote bank, which was once an AIADMK vote bank, split and is being shared among the DMK, the AIADMK and the BJP now. It [Nagendran’s appointment] is one of BJP’s attempts to gain a foothold in southern Tamil Nadu,” Sunilkumar said.
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AIADMK minister to BJP Tamil Nadu President
With its desperate attempts to make inroads in Tamil Nadu, the BJP had a hiring spree after the demise of J. Jayalalithaa in 2017. Although there were mass resignations from the AIADMK, with people joining the BJP in southern Tamil Nadu in 2017, Nainar Nagendran was the only prominent leader to join the party then.
A native of Vadiveeswaram village in Nagercoil district, Nainar Nagendran belongs to the Maravar sect of the Mukkulathor community, which is dominant in southern Tamil Nadu.
As an AIADMK member, Nainar Nagendran contested in the state assembly election for the first time in 2001 from the Tirunelveli constituency. After he secured a win, then-CM J. Jayalalithaa inducted him into her cabinet, giving him key portfolios, including industries, transport, and the electricity department.
However, he lost the election in 2006 by over 600 votes. Nagendran again won in the 2011 assembly elections but was not inducted into the state cabinet. In the 2016 election, he got a ticket again but lost.
After joining the BJP in 2017, the party gave him a ticket, and he again became an MLA and a legislative party leader from the BJP.
Political analyst Sunilkumar said that Nainar Nagendran, a man on the ground in the region, was liked beyond party lines.
“Irrespective of the political party he is in, he has the backing of the people in his constituency and the support of the Mukkulathoor community in the region,” said Sunilkumar.
Political commentator Priyan remarked that Nainar Nagendran was a BJP man with a Dravidian trait. He had not spewed hate speeches against any community, religion or other factions in the party, he added.
“Despite being in the Opposition then and now in the BJP, he still has a good relationship with the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister [M.K. Stalin]. He is known for such values,” Priyan said.
The only time that Nainar Nagendran landed in controversy was in 2018 after he issued death threats to the poet Vairamuthu after he reportedly referred to the Hindu deity Andal as a devadasi in an editorial in a Tamil daily.
For his speech in Palayamkottai, Tamil Nadu police booked him under five sections, including charges of criminal intimidation.
Nainar, also a businessman, has, across the state, been running a chain of hotels, including one at the state headquarters in Chennai. In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the BJP made him its candidate from the Tirunelveli constituency. At the time, the police seized nearly Rs four crore from three employees at Nainar’s hotels.
BJP’s OBC leaders
According to political analysts, the selection of Nainar Nagendran is an extension of the BJP’s long-term plan to consolidate the OBC castes in the state.
A political analyst and assistant professor in the political science department at a private university, Arunkumar, said that the party’s long-term strategy was to bring every dominant OBC caste in the state into its fold.
“The party has been suffering from a Brahmin party image, and it has been struggling to erase the image in the state. It all began in 2009. It has continued till now,” he said.
In 2009, the then-president of the BJP Tamil Nadu unit, Pon Radhakrishnan, who hails from the Kanyakumari district, became the first non-Brahmin leader from the party to reach the position. Belonging to the Nadar community, an Other Backward Community (OBC), he continued as the party president until 2014, before the BJP made him a Union minister.
Subsequently, the party made Tamilisai Soundararajan, who belonged to the Nadar community, president in August 2014. After her appointment in 2019 to the Telangana governor post, L. Murugan, who hails from the Arunthathiyar community, a Scheduled Caste, took charge as the party president.
After his brief stint, the party made him a Union minister in July 2021. Then, it appointed K. Annamalai, who is from the OBC Gounder community in the western region of Tamil Nadu, as the party president.
According to political analysts, the appointment of Nainar Nagendran would help both the AIADMK and the BJP.
“Since he is a former AIADMK man and now a BJP president, he would also get the Mukkulathor community votes for both parties in the southern region. Similarly, AIADMK, which has lost its ground in the southern region, would gain public confidence and get back its vote share,” Arunkumar said.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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