Annamalai Withdraws From Tamil Nadu BJP Chief Race, Says `Will Select Leader Unanimously`-OxBig News Network

Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai said on Friday that the party would choose a leader unanimously for the state’s BJP chief position and clarified that he was not in the race.

“There is no contest in Tamil Nadu BJP, we will select a leader unanimously. But I am not in the race. I am not in the BJP state leadership race,” Annamalai said while speaking to the media in Coimbatore, ANI reported.

His reaction comes a day after a meeting of AIADMK leader Edappadi Palaniswamy with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi along with other party leaders. Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu are scheduled to be held in 2026.

However, leaders from neither side confirmed the real objective of the meeting.

The meeting fueled speculation about the potential revival of the BJP-AIADMK alliance ahead of the upcoming state assembly elections.

Annamalai is a former IPS officer from the 2011 Karnataka batch and joined the BJP in August 2020. He was appointed as state president within ten months.