Will BJP sacrifice Annamalai for AIADMK tie up?

Apart from too many names making the rounds as possible replacement for Annamalai on Tuesday, there have been a plethora of definitive indicators on the removal of Annamalai who could possibly be entrusted with national level responsibilities in the party or even be made a Rajya Sabha member and subsequently inducted into the Union Ministry.

The rumours of the BJP leadership’s decision to relieve Annamalai from his present position started circulating when he was called to New Delhi for a meeting with Amit Shah. To add more fuel to the fire, Annamalai himself said that he was willing to work as an ordinary party cadre.

While Palaiswami did not commit himself to Amit Shah on bringing his party back to the NDA fold, the BJP is too keen to have the party as an ally in the 2026 Assembly election and would like to iron out any hitch that might crop up well in advance, sources said.

Since Annamalai and Palaniswami did not see eye to eye, despite both hailing from Western Tamil Nadu, right from the beginning, the change in BJP State leadership is rather inevitable for the high command and that factor had also fuelled the rumours of Annamalai’s ouster from the present post.

While mainstream media was agog over the speculation by even naming potential replacements like two former BJP State presidents, Tamilisai Soundararajan and L Murugan, and MLA from Tirunelveli Nainar Nagendran and also pointing out that each of them belonged to a different caste, it remains to be seen as to how Amit Shah would orchestrate the entire drama.

Many leaders in the State BJP were skeptical about Amit Shah replacing Annamalai as they felt that he was the one who gave the present visibility to the party in the State and also pointing out the tenures of both Soundararajan and Murugan were in no way better for the BJP’s popularity among the people.

Through his social media presence, regular meetings with the media and his reputation as a former IPS officer, Annamalai helped improve the image of the BJP that was earlier in the dumps. BJP old timers also felt that Nainar Nagendran who came into the party recently from the AIADMK would not be able to provide the leadership that Annamalai managed to give, particularly among the youth.

However, many BJP workers agree that the party would benefit from aligning with the AIADMK – it managed to send four of its candidates to the State Assembly in the last elections – but feel that the BJP should also have a strong leader in the State, indirectly expressing a preference to Annamalai.

The BJP leaders, on the other hand, also feel that any alliance should be forged in advance to enable the grassroots workers to strike a rapport among them before reaching out to the voters since he parties are rooted in diametrically opposite basic ideologies and also have differing views on issues like two language policy and so on.