BJP set to unveil new Tamil Nadu chief tomorrow, MLA Nainar Nagendran’s name all but final

According to BJP insiders, there is no serious contest for the post, despite speculation around other names such as Vanathi Srinivasan and former state president Tamilisai Soundararajan. “Everyone knows Nainar is Delhi’s choice. Any attempt to lobby now will be seen as defying the leadership’s wishes,” a senior BJP functionary said. “There are no conflicting voices so far. Even those with ambition have stayed away.”

The move comes just days after the state president K Annamalai publicly said he is “not in the contest for the new state chief” and would continue to serve as “an ordinary cadre”. His exit was framed not as a demotion but as part of a calculated strategy to recalibrate the party’s leadership profile in the state, particularly in view of the alliance with the AIADMK.

Annamalai and AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami both hail from the Gounder community, dominant in the western Kongu region. With the BJP looking to finalise its renewed alliance with AIADMK, the party believes that balancing caste representation is key to expanding its vote base across Tamil Nadu. As a Thevar leader from the southern belt, Nagendran fits that equation.

The swift rise

Nagendran’s elevation caps a remarkable political journey. After Jayalalithaa’s death in 2016, he left the AIADMK in 2017 citing a leadership vacuum and joined the BJP. He contested and won the Tirunelveli Assembly seat in 2021 as part of the BJP-AIADMK alliance and was soon made the legislative party leader. He later contested the 2024 Lok Sabha election, though unsuccessfully.

Since joining the BJP, Nagendran has been given special attention by the party’s top brass. Union Home Minister Amit Shah personally campaigned for him in the 2021 Assembly election, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended two of his public meetings during the 2024 Lok Sabha campaign.

Nagendran has also embraced the party’s long-term social engineering project in Tamil Nadu. In a conversation with The Indian Express last year, he laid out his vision for the region where BJP has been trying to unite Hindu Dalit, Most Backward and Backward communities in a social engineering strategy: “What we are trying is to make Tirunelveli a Kanyakumari-model place for the BJP with a significant vote base.”

With the BJP keen to present a cohesive front ahead of a challenging assembly election, Nagendran’s appointment, if confirmed, will be seen as an effort to deepen the party’s southern reach and strengthen its caste outreach.

The BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit has four MLAs in the current assembly. Nagendran is the most senior among them and has maintained a relatively low-profile, non-confrontational public image – unlike Annamalai, whose aggressive politics hugely benefited the BJP to improve its visibility while also leading to friction with key alliance partners. Nagendran’s command and respect among the minority communities in his region, even after joining the BJP, also helped him win the 2021 polls.

The executive committee meeting scheduled for 5 pm Saturday is expected to formalise Nagendran’s appointment, barring any last-minute surprises. With the nomination being filed today and no opposition in sight, BJP insiders say the party is preparing for a smooth transition.