BJP invites nominations for Tamil Nadu party chief’s post

Amit Shah s on his first visit to the state after the BJP and its former ally AIADMK began alliance talks last month

Hours before Union home minister Amit Shah’s arrival in Chennai late Thursday night, BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit announced that elections for the new state party chief will be held and mandated that those who want to contest will require at least 10 years of party membership.

Though the BJP’s 10-year rule effectively puts Annamalai out of the race, Annamalai became state party chief in 2021, only 11 months after he had joined the party (PTI)

Shah is on his first visit to the state after the BJP and its former ally AIADMK began alliance talks last month. On March 26, AIADMK leader Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) met Shah in New Delhi, fuelling speculation that the BJP could ally with the AIADMK ahead of the 2026 polls.

According to an official, Shah will be meeting with senior BJP leaders on April 11 morning before meeting the press at noon followed by a meeting with RSS ideologue and Thuglaq magazine editor S Gurumurthy and departing. BJP state president K Annamalai, who said last week that he is not in the race for the party chief’s post, met Gurumurthy at his residence in Chennai’s Mylapore on Thursday evening.

“He (Amit Shah) will be here until tomorrow (on Friday). He often comes to the state to get ground-level feedback. As of now, I am only authorised to say that he is coming to the state. The rest we will discuss at a more appropriate time,” Annamalai said.

Though the BJP’s 10-year rule effectively puts Annamalai out of the race, Annamalai became state party chief in 2021, only 11 months after he had joined the party. “This rule has always existed in the party but the high command can choose to follow it or not,” a senior BJP leader said.

The AIADMK walked out of the NDA in Tamil Nadu in 2023 as it blamed Annamalai for criticising the Dravidian parties founders so the possibility of an alliance and the timing of the elections in BJP state units across the country has led to speculation that Annamalai’s term will not continue to have a smooth patch up with the AIADMK. After meeting EPS, Shah posted on X that the NDA will form the government in 2026 in Tamil Nadu and also said that alliance talks have begun with the AIADMK. EPS, however, denied that they spoke on the alliance and said that the matter will be decided closer to elections.

Meanwhile, the 10-year rule also effectively rules out one of the contenders for the post — former AIADMK man who joined the BJP in 2017, Nainar Nagendran. An MLA from Tirunelveli district, Nagendran is the national party’s floor leader in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly.

Annamalai on Thursday said that Shah is visiting poll bound states like he did in Bihar and met NDA partners. “Amit Shah ji keeps coming to take ground-level feedback of the state. This is his fourth visit,” Annamalai told reporters. “He also meets a cross section of people like business people, academicians. Tomorrow we will brief you. As of now I’m only authorised to say he is coming and he will leave tomorrow evening.”

Earlier in the day, Shah on X criticised the DMK government of corruption. “Tamil Nadu people are fed up with DMK’s corruption. That’s why DMK is using delimitation issue as a cover up.” DMK’s organising secretary RS Bharathi responded that the BJP is using allegations of corruption and raids by federal agencies to silence opposition parties who are standing up to them.

“Whenever Amit Shah comes to Tamil Nadu, he has made it a point to criticise anyone ruling the state as corrupt. He did that in 2018, saying Tamil Nadu was the most corrupt state,” Bharathi said, adding that the state was under the AIADMK regime then led by EPS. The following year the AIADMK and BJP formed an alliance ahead of the 2019 general elections.

With inputs from Agencies