Annamalai Politely Refuses Cabinet Berth, Eyes 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly Poll

Thirty nine year old Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai proves yet again that he is an enigma, hard to decode and dogged in his efforts, untiring and unbeatable. Stepping into the BJP in 2019, and getting leadership in 2021, his mercurial rise within the party is astounding. Within four years he proved his mettle of building the BJP presence from around 4% to 11.26 % vote share in the just concluded Lok Sabha election. His detractors and rivals were happy when he was summoned to the swearing-in ceremony of PM Modi and his team. His defeat in Coimbatore must have been a big sting. Happy that he would be put to pasture in a cabinet berth and vacate TN’s hot seat as the leader. The three aspirants, Tamilisai Soundararajan, Vanathi Srinivasan and Nayinar Nagendran were already drumming up support to move into Annamalai’s post. Even as he sat in the last row when the PM gave his motivational sermon his strong opponents DMK and AIADMK leaders were trying to read his body language. Surprise and shock was writ large on his party colleagues, his antagonists and cadres when he flew back to TN thereby signalling that he had high command’s full backing. It was not surprising as Annamalai has single-handedly cobbled a BJP presence in TN, worked 24/7, walked padayatra, taken on the ruling party on many issues and remained politically significant. Above all, in a Dravidam state alternating between the DMK and AIADMK, he brought relevance to Hindutva and the BJP. He may have ruffled many feathers both within his party and opposition but he is here to stay for a long haul.