BJP was Annamalai’s launchpad; leaving it is his breakthrough

In his ‘report’ to the BJP national leadership, Annamalai detailed the reasons for the party’s electoral debacle and stunted growth in Tamil Nadu. What he didn’t say, however, is that Vijay’s rapid rise to power had triggered his exit. This is where Annamalai is different. While most leaders saw TVK’s success as an overcrowding of the state’s political scene, Annamalai found it the end of a 60-year Dravidian cycle and an opportunity to be Vijay’s challenger.

Annamalai doesn’t rule out DMK’s revival, he believes AIADMK is on the decline, and that Vijay would lose much of the sheen when politics keeps rubbing on popularity. With the state graduating from binary politics to a game of three, he sees a podium to occupy. At 42, as the youngest of the younger trio (C Joseph Vijay is 52, Udhayanidhi Stalin, 48), Annamalai is planning a marathon to Fort St George.

It won’t be easy. He will have to work hard on shedding the remnants of his saffron past. He should also resist the temptation to jump to conclusions like he did in Jan 2022, calling the suicide of a schoolgirl in Thanjavur a result of a Christian conversion bid (CBI found no such connection). With no saffron bosses to please, such restraint may come easier, but Annamalai’s professed secularism would, for at least some time, appear coloured.

Aggression has been his double-edged sword: it endeared him to BJP cadres; it backfired during his early interactions with media. On a personal note, Annamalai and I share mutual respect though I have disagreed with his politics. In Nov 2022, when he compared journalists to monkeys, this column said: “The thing about Annamalai is that he is funny even when he doesn’t intend to be funny – especially when he gets angry, which is most of the time.” He called me home for lunch.

Annamalai’s communication skills are at their best when he maintains a ‘contained anger’. He is comfortable in English and Tamil, can engage in policy discussions, withstand hostile interviews and articulate complex arguments without sounding academic. You may disagree with him, but you can’t dismiss him as superficial.

More than taking away BJP cadres, he would be working on attracting talent from other parties and the apolitical youth. Sections of AIADMK, especially those from the gounder western belt of Edappadi K Palaniswami, would be a natural target. So would be urban DMK voters who value administrative competence but are not emotionally attached to the Dravidian ideology.

The real challenge is not whether people like him; it is whether enough of them are willing to work for him, vote for him repeatedly, and stay with him through setbacks. That happens or not, Annamalai without BJP looks more promising than BJP without Annamalai.