annamalai-likely-to-be-minister-of-state-bjp

Tamil Nadu BJP President Annamalai will be inducted into the Union Council of Ministers as Minister of State on Sunday, according to Bharatiya Janata Party sources.

 

Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi is set to take oath for a third consecutive term on Sunday, and speculations are mounting about leaders who will likely take oath as members of the Council of Ministers today at Rashtrapati Bhawan.

 

After Annamalai is inducted into the Council of Ministers, the Tamil Nadu BJP president post will likely be assigned to someone else.

 

The 39-year-old former IPS officer Annamalai lost the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 from the Coimbatore constituency to rival Ganapathy Rajkumar of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).

 

Annamalai joined the BJP in 2019 and became the president of the party’s Tamil Nadu unit in 2021.

 

On Friday, two days after the election results, as he was talking at the NDA meeting, Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi was all in praise for his partymen in Tamil Nadu for putting up a “spirited fight.” He said the BJP’s vote share has increased and NDA has performed well in Tamil Nadu.

 

While Narendra Modi was hailing his party colleagues in Delhi, dissent voices began growing against the Tamil Nadu leadership.

IPS officer-turned-politician K. Annamalai is facing the ire within and outside the party for the debacle.

 

Annamalai, who contested from Coimbatore, lost to DMK’s P. Ganapathy Rajkumar by a margin of 1.5 lakh votes.

 

“We are well-known faces in the state who will not lose an election. We would have certainly won if the strategy was right. It was strategised by the state leadership which he thought would work in our favour,” former Telangana governor and BJP’s candidate from South Chennai constituency Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan told the media.

 

Tamilisai was visibly upset against DMK and party colleagues for being trolled on social media for her hairstyle and looks.

 

Apart from Tamilisai, one of the senior leaders, Kalyana Raman, took to X, formerly Twitter, saying that Annamalai had deceived the party’s high command about the BJP’s growth in Tamil Nadu.

 

On the other side, BJP’s former ally AIADMK, which helped the national party win four MLAs in the 2021 assembly polls too alleged, “If Annamalai had controlled his mouth, there would have been a better result,” AIADMK’s former minister and Madurai strongman R.B. Udhayakumar said.

 

Addressing a press conference in Coimbatore, AIADMK senior leader and Edappadi K. Palanisami’s lieutenant S.P. Velumani blamed Annamalai for the loss of both parties.

 

“Annamalai is here to exist for the next few years. The high command believes that he was the sole reason for the party increasing its vote share,” said a senior leader who backs Annamalai.

 

But, even before Modi could appreciate the performance of the state BJP, Annamalai called it a “victory” saying that that party has increased its vote share pushing the AIADMK to the third position.