BJP Reshuffles Tamil Nadu Leadership: Nainar Nagendran Replaces K. Annamalai Ahead of 2026 Poll Strategy

Amit Shah with AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami and K Annamalai during a press conference in Chennai on April 11, 2025. After back-to-back electoral setbacks, BJP bets on Nainar Nagendran to rebuild its Tamil Nadu unit and reforge the AIADMK alliance.
| Photo Credit: PTI

BJP high command’s blue-eyed boy, K. Annamalai, was replaced as Tamil Nadu president on April 11, by a former All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Minister and current BJP MLA, Nainar Nagendran.

While a formal announcement is yet to be done, Nainar was the only person who had filed his nomination for the post on April 11, the day set aside for filing of nominations. In a twist in the tale, at the last minute, some confusion was added to the matrix after the BJP State unit announced that one of the criteria for filing a nomination was that the person should have been a member of the party for at least 10 years.

If the BJP election officer goes by this strictly, he will not be able to declare the election in favour of Nainar. But, as is with most political parties, the election is only a formality; the decision was already made in New Delhi when Nainar was summoned by Union Minister Amit Shah and told last week that he would be the State president of the party.

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In fact, even Annamalai did not have this mandatory 10-year membership before he was appointed party president in the State. Annamalai tendered his resignation from the IPS in 2019, hung around actor Rajinikanth for a while hoping he would launch a political party, and joined the BJP in 2020. He was appointed the BJP Tamil Nadu vice president in 2020. In July 2021, he was posted as president.

Nainar, the only senior AIADMK office bearer to switch sides after the death of former Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalithaa in December 2016, has been on the margins of the State leadership after Annamalai took over the reins of the party in Tamil Nadu.

Nainar belongs to the influential Mukkulathor community (Maravar sect), and the move reflects the BJP’s strategy for the Tamil Nadu Assembly election in 2026. Annamalai, who belongs to the Gounder community, was expected to push the BJP in the western districts in the 2021 Assembly and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. But Annamalai lost his seat in both elections. While the BJP managed to win four MLA seats in 2021 in alliance with the AIADMK, it drew a blank in 2024, after the high command went with Annamalai’s idea of forging a front without the AIADMK.

Different Ministerial portfolios

The BJP was counting on a few seats from Tamil Nadu. “Yes, we were expecting at least five seats from Tamil Nadu. But we all know how that turned out,” remarked a State-level leader. “This was possibly the biggest failure of Annamalai,” he added. This did not go unnoticed in Delhi. Nainar began his political journey with the AIADMK and served as a Minister in Jayalalithaa’s cabinet between 2001 and 2006. He was an important Minister, holding the portfolios of industries, electricity and transport at different times. Even though Jayalalithaa changed faces in her Ministry several times, Nainar was unaffected.

In 2006, Nainar was shockingly defeated by a slender margin of just over 600 votes. He won in 2011, and lost yet again in 2016, by an almost similar margin of about 600 votes, reflecting the peculiar caste combination at work in Tirunelveli district. Unsurprisingly, Nainar was left out of the 2011 Cabinet, there was a method behind the selection of the many MLAs who were suddenly made ministers in the Jayalalithaa Cabinet and why someone was dropped, but it is difficult to figure out.

When Nainar joined the BJP in 2017, there was an expectation that many other senior AIADMK leaders would follow suit—as was the case with the BJP’s growth in other States where leaders from Congress and regional parties flocked to the saffron party. But AIADMK in Tamil Nadu proved to be tougher for the BJP to break and wean away leaders.

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In 2021, Nainar contested the Tamil Nadu Assembly election from the Tirunelveli constituency as a BJP candidate and won, becoming one of the four BJP MLAs in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. Ever since, Nainar has been focusing on strengthening the party’s presence in southern Tamil Nadu. With this appointment, the only condition imposed by the AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswamy on the BJP has been fulfilled. As soon as it became known that the demand had been met, Palaniswamy met Amit Shah at a Chennai hotel and confirmed the AIADMK—BJP alliance for the 2026 election.

The press conference soon after with Amit Shah and Palaniswamy made it clear who was the alliance boss. Even as the AIADMK general secretary sat mute on stage, Amit Shah spoke about the alliance, the fact that the BJP stood for a three-language policy and delimitation (both of which the AIADMK opposes) and that the DMK was raking these issues up for electoral gain and to divert people’s attention from burning issues of the day.