Marginalised in the BJP, facing a bleak future in the state politics following the dramatic rise of Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) and Joseph Vijay’s ascent as Chief Minister, saffron party’s former state president K Annamalai is likely to launch his own political vehicle on May 4, coinciding with his birthday.
On Tuesday, he called on Union Home Minister Amit Shah and is believed to have explained the reasons for quitting the party. Shah has also summoned state party chief Nainar Nagenthran. But whether Annamalai would retract is doubtful. Earlier in the day, he met party president Nitin Nabin in the national capital and submitted his resignation along with a letter detailing the marginalisation he had faced in the party. He has reportedly declined the offer of a Rajya Sabha berth to pursue his own independent path.
Though he is ending his six-year-long association with the BJP, he may not be shedding the saffron ideology. His new party, sources close to him maintain, would prioritise Tamil identity with soft Hindutva by engaging in a conversation to win over the OBC support base of the DMK and AIADMK and position itself as a counter to Chief Minister Vijay’s TVK.
According to observers, Annamalai, with a long career in the police service, was mentored by BJP general secretary BL Santosh, who parachuted him into Tamil Nadu politics in August 2020. Within a year, he became the state party chief, succeeding Union Minister L Murugan. Months before the Tamil Nadu assembly poll, he was asked to step down to pave the way for an alliance with the AIADMK. Neither did he contest the election nor campaign extensively for the NDA, indicating his disenchantment with the BJP.
It is to his credit that he became a leader with a following, especially of the youth, within the party and helped the saffron parivar acquire greater media space. But critics accuse him of attempting to cultivate a larger-than-life image at the party’s expense. “He is a man in a hurry. We don’t want the BJP to come to power immediately. We want to come as we have done in states like UP,” RSS ideologue and ‘Thuglak’ editor S Gurumurthy said earlier.
For some, Annamalai represents the emerging socio-political dynamics in the state. “For more than a decade, the BJP in Tamil Nadu tried to cash in on the Modi magic and failed miserably. It has become clear that Modi is no vote catcher here. Unlike other states, Modi is not a political capital since the politics that shaped the state remain very different.
“That Annamalai is launching a new party exposes the limits of Modi magic,” explains political commentator K Elangovan.
“Also, of importance is who will be the leader for the Kongu belt, northern Tamil Nadu where the dominant OBC Goundars play a dominant role in the sphere of political economy. Like AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS), Annamalai too is from the Goundar community,” he quipped.
Whether Annamalai could be an effective counter to the charismatic Vijay and the TVK in power is a question that will refuse to die.