Kuppusamy Annamalai joined BJP on 25 August 2020 and left BJP on 5 June 2026. During these six years, he was also the President of Tamil Nadu unit of BJP. On one hand he resigned and on the other hand BJP National President Nitin Naveen immediately accepted his resignation from the primary membership of the party. No noise, no media discussion, no gossip! Just suddenly Annamalai left the party. He has definitely hinted at forming a new Tamilian political party. However, no political analyst is ready to believe that Annamalai has left BJP only to form a new Tamil party. Every analyst believes that there is some big political move by BJP itself behind Annamalai’s resignation. BJP also knows that it is impossible to win elections in Tamil Nadu without running on Tamil identity.
Victory Chariot of Vijay Thalapathi
BJP has seen the victory chariot of Thalapathy Vijay. Within two years, Vijay did wonders and overthrew the Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu. Before the assembly elections, BJP had tried to bring Thalapathy Vijay into its NDA alliance. But Vijay did not accept this even though the national unit of BJP had also proposed to make Vijay the Deputy Chief Minister. However, Thalapathy Vijay’s single Chalo Re! The campaign was successful and on the basis of Tamil identity, he brought his party (TVK) to the forefront in the assembly. He needed 120 seats for majority. He had 108 seats, so Congress immediately took the initiative and supported Vijay. With the support of 5 Congress MLAs and IUML, CPI, CPM and VCK MLAs, Thalapathy Vijay’s government was formed in Tamil Nadu. However, later Anna DMK also supported him.
Annamalai was opposed to Dravidian parties
There is no threat to Thalapathy Vijay’s chair now but the turmoil in Tamil Nadu politics has not ended. Annamalai was troubled somewhere in his mind that BJP had not got a single seat in Tamil Nadu in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. In April 2025, Annamalai left the post of state party president and the national leaders of BJP also accepted his resignation. Handed over the command of the party to Nainar Nagendran. Annamalai Kuppusamy’s problem was that he had differences with both the big parties of Tamil Nadu – DMK and Anna DMK. Annamalai had accused DMK leader MK Stalin and people close to him of corruption and Anna had even called DMK General Secretary AK Palaniswami uneducated. He was accused of arranging bids for MLAs to grab the post of leader of the AIADMK legislature party.
Kerala was a boon for BJP
BJP has not yet achieved relative success in the far south. After independence, till now it has been able to form a government under its leadership only in Karnataka. In Andhra his role has been that of a hanger-on. In Tamil Nadu and Kerala, he had to face problems even to open an account. Today BJP has one MLA in Tamil Nadu but this year proved to be a boon for BJP in Keralam. It currently has 3 MLAs in Kerala and in 2024 it had also won a Lok Sabha seat from there. BJP’s account in Kerala was opened in 2016 but it failed in the 2021 assembly elections. The Nemom seat was gone from him. But in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Suresh Gopi of BJP won the Thrissur seat. Suresh Gopi has been a popular actor in Malayalam films. In December 2025, BJP won the post of Mayor in Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation.
Coordination with regional parties is necessary
On the contrary, BJP’s account in Tamil Nadu was opened long ago. BJP had got one seat there in the 1996 assembly elections. In the year 2001, with the help of DMK, four of its MLAs had won. After this, in 2021, it won four seats in alliance with AIADMK, but in the 2026 assembly elections, it got only one seat. The National Committee of BJP understands very well that it cannot enter these southern states without forming an alliance with any regional party. However, this is where Annamalai would come in the way. He would neither have agreed to an alliance with DMK nor with AIADMK. To expand its base across the country, any political party has to compromise with the satraps of different areas. Congress has been doing the same thing since 1971 and BJP also did these experiments under Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
BJP’s image is not favorable in Tamil Nadu
Atal Bihari Vajpayee had formed an alliance with AIADMK to run his 1998 government. Jayalalitha was his important ally at that time. But after 13 months, when Jai Lalitha betrayed the Atal government, in 1999 she immediately made a compromise with DMK’s Karunanidhi. Then this government was able to complete its tenure. There is no doubt that in 2026, the people of Tamil Nadu were deeply angry with these two Dravidian parties, but even then there are no chances of BJP’s victory because BJP has no identity there. Whatever it is, it takes him away from Tamil identity. The image of BJP there is like that of a party of Hindi speaking people. The objective of which is to establish the superiority of North India in the country, impose Hindi and exploit the resources of the state. Of course this is not right but who will destroy this image.
Annamalai remained weak in laying political cards
That is why Thalapathy Vijay’s TVK came out ahead there and a BJP MLA won. Actually Annamalai Kuppusamy is wonderful as a person. His impeccable image is also very attractive but he is crude in laying political cards. K Annamalai, a 2011 batch IPS officer, obtained a mechanical engineering degree from Coimbatore and then did an MBA from IIM, Lucknow. Then in 2011 he was selected in the Union Public Service Commission. He served in Karnataka. Annamalai, who is proficient in Tamil, Kannada, English, Hindi and Malayalam, worked hard after becoming the president. His efforts in establishing the roots of BJP in Tamil Nadu cannot be ignored. However, in today’s environment, Annamalai cannot make BJP reach the common people in any way. That’s why maybe BJP has got rid of him for now.
Stalin’s bitterness towards Congress
One more thing is important here and that is that BJP needs 272 members in the Lok Sabha. Although the strength of BJP alliance NDA with the support of Telugu Desam and JD(U) is 293, but in politics no friend or enemy remains for long. There is often a danger of Nitish’s party JD (U) changing sides. In such a situation, BJP is now also eyeing Stalin’s DMK, which has 22 members in the Lok Sabha. Out of the 29 members of TMC which is on the verge of collapse, at least 2022 can become the support of BJP. Therefore, BJP needs such leaders in the party who are helpful in making compromises with regional parties in their states. Anyway, DMK has broken ties with India Bloc because Stalin feels that Congress first stabbed him in the back in Tamil Nadu. Therefore, keeping distance from Annamalai could also be BJP’s strategy.
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