Nainar Nagendran Becomes Next Tamil Nadu BJP President; Annamalai Set For National Role-OxBig News Network

CHENNAI: BJP legislator from Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli constituency, Nainar Nagendran will be next Tamil Nadu BJP chief, replacing K Annamalai. His appointment is likely to be officially announced later. Nagendran will be succeeding former IPS officer K Annamalai, who is now all set for a national role that seems to be an apparent reward for his work in the Dravidian heartland.

BJP senior and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, in the city to review the party’s functioning and also discuss alliance related matters ahead of 2026 state polls, said Annamalai had made “commendable accomplishments” and that Nagendran’s was the sole nomination received for the state party chief’s election.

“The Tamil Nadu BJP has received a nomination for the post of state president only from Shri @NainarBJP Ji. As the President of the Tamil Nadu BJP unit, Shri @annamalai_k Ji has made commendable accomplishments. 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.” “The BJP will leverage Annamalai Ji’s organizational skills in the party’s national framework,” Shah said in a social media update.

Nagendran was the lone contestant in the fray with the backing of BJP leadership. Nagendran, currently the state vice president, was formerly with the AIADMK. He was the first aspirant to arrive at the BJP state headquarters, Kamalalayam, in T Nagar, and file the nomination. His name was proposed by the current party chief K Annamalai, Union Minister L Murugan, former Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan, and BJP legislator and Mahila Morcha President Vanathi Srinivasan.

Nagendran – a former AIADMK leader who joined the BJP in 2017 after being sidelined following the death of party chief J Jayalalithaa – is also known for his staunch views on Hindutva. For the 64-year-old politician, his elevation as the thirteenth president of the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP, comes with a huge responsibility to strive for the party’s victory in the Assembly polls next year.

A veteran in electoral politics, Nagendran has been a former state minister in the Jayalalithaa Cabinet. His rise as party chief, succeeding former IPS official K Annamalai, is seen as a strategic move by the BJP to rope in the AIADMK into the NDA camp to take on the DMK, as a combined force. “He (Nagendran) was made the BJP legislature party leader owing to his experience. Now he has been entrusted with a greater role to steer the party to victory in the Assembly election next year,” a BJP senior leader told PTI.

Nagendran himself admitted that he contested the party president’s election after ten leaders backed his nomination. “I thank all of them and our (central) leaders,” he said.