(image:x.com/annamalai_k)

Chennai, Tamil Nadu: As the possibility for BJP-AIADMK alliance talks are proceeding for next year’s assembly election , there are reports that K. Annamalai may step down as BJP Tamil Nadu president. The decision is prompted by caste equations in the poll-bound state, not as  a “punishment”, a report in the Indian Express said.

If the parties are fighting the next state elections together, the BJP does not want the face of both parties from the same Gounder community. Similar to Annamalai, AIADMK chief Edappadi K. Palaniswami is also belongs to the powerful backward community. Both came from the same western Kongu region where Gounders are dominant.

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The Indian Express report that Annamalai had been communicated the BJP’s decision at a meeting held with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi. Shah held the meeting soon after he met Palaniswami – the first formal steps by the BJP and AIADMK regarding reunion. BJP leadership told Annamalai, “Delhi sees a bright future for him,” and added that the party expected him to trust and follow its strategy, Indian Express report said.

As per the reports, Annamalai expressed total loyalty to the party. A senior BJP leader told that Annamalai doesn’t had any second thoughts, and is even ready to work as a mere cadre.

“Whether Annamalai exits from the state president’s post or not, he remains a key figure in the party’s long-term strategy for Tamil Nadu. Whether he takes on a national role or a different assignment in the state remains to be seen,” Indian Express reports, as a BJP leader is saying.

BJP MLA Nainar Nagendran, a popular leader from Tirunelveli is a frontrunner to replace Annamalai as Tamil Nadu BJP chief. Earlier belonged to AIADMK, he is from the influential Thevar community.

Bringing a Thevar leader Nagendran to leadership fold, could help expand its influence in the southern districts and beyond, “where the AIADMK-BJP alliance will need to counter the DMK’s stronghold,” another BJP leader told the Express.

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Meanwhile, while talking to media in Coimbatore on Sunday, Annamalai refused to take any questions on the AIADMK-BJP alliance.

Explaining his sole goal was the BJP’s long-term growth in the state, Annamalai said: “I have always been clear . . . I did not come to politics for power, I came to make a change in Tamil Nadu politics.”