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Journalism of Courage
In the two years that he has been the Tamil Nadu BJP chief, K Annamalai has never been far from news — often stepping on own party’s shoes.
While the former IPS officer’s aggression has ensured the party’s visibility, many BJP leaders feel it may not be the best strategy in a state where it must balance several sensibilities given its second-fiddle status to more dominant allies.
In the latest instance, Annamalai has not just invited a “Rs 500 crore” lawsuit from the DMK over a corruption long list, his potshots at ally AIADMK — urging the BJP to break ties with it — have drawn a sharp response from the latter.
The 39-year-old has also taken on the media and rubbed BJP leaders the wrong way with his brusque manner, leading several in the past few months to leave the party.
For a national party that is not so popular in Tamil Nadu, launching Annamalai into state politics was an experimental move, just like the appointment of a woman state chief, Tamilisai Soundararajan, in August 2014.
A senior state BJP leader once described him to The Indian Express as “a leader without a profile” while another “sidelined” leader said Annamalai’s rise was akin to making “a mountain out of a molehill”. Stressing that his only claim to fame was his time in the police, the leader said: “A person heading a national party in Tamil Nadu should be someone who has worked on the ground with cadres for at least a decade. Unfortunately, he isn’t like that, he was launched by B L Santhosh (BJP national general secretary) from Karnataka.”
Another functionary not on friendly terms with Annamalai said the party was suffering due to frequent changes of state leadership.
A top RSS leader in Tamil Nadu said: “While Annamalai is enthusiastic, his ignorance of issues and immature behaviour lead to problems. We have had to deal with cases such as him asking senior journalists whether they go to temples or churches, and enquiring about the religion of their spouses.”
Professor Ramu Manivannan, who has taught political science at the University of Madras, said Annamalai was reflective of a new kind of politics — “that we can manage people if we manage the media properly”. “But mistaking the masses for the media is foolish.”
Annamalai may be a “saleable commodity” due to the interesting mix of his IPS tag and age, he said, but it would be wrong to see him as the main Opposition due to it. “It is the BJP government at the Centre that is the principal Opposition in Tamil Nadu.”
The state BJP unit is also unsure about the reasoning behind Annamalai’s push for parting of ways with the AIADMK. Annamalai has slammed the E Palaniswami-led party as corrupt and indulgent of voter bribery, said he did not join politics to tolerate this, and threatened to resign if the BJP did not sever ties with the party.
But, given the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and its hopes of picking up as many MPs from the south as possible, ditching the AIADMK is far from the BJP’s scheme of things – especially given the time and effort it has put into the alliance since J Jayalalithaa’s illness and demise.
Several senior BJP leaders admit they are confused as to why the BJP is letting Annamalai have this free reign. “If it had been any other leader, he would have been summoned to Delhi by now,” said a district president.
