Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be holding Bharatiya Janata Party's organisational meetings in Tamil Nadu on Sunday. Shah's visit comes at a time when the party is working to sharpen its political outreach ahead of the assembly elections in the southern state in less than a year.
Party sources said Shah will chair a meeting of the core committee, which includes key leaders of the state organisation, and then speak to office-bearers from mandal, districts and the state. He will also offer prayers at the famous Meenakshi Temple in Madurai before his political programmes, they added.
The BJP has joined hands with the main opposition AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) to challenge the ruling DMK-led alliance in the state. The AIADMK is the senior partner in the alliance which is likely to include some smaller parties as well amid the DMK's sharp campaign to paint the BJP as a party working against the state's interests, including by allegedly trying to impose Hindi.
The DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) has also been raising the issue of alleged political damage to southern states in a future delimitation exercise due to their success in curbing the population growth compared to their northern counterparts. The BJP has insisted that the DMK has been raising these issues as diversion tactics to shift focus from the alleged corruption and misgovernance under the rule of Chief Minister MK Stalin. Shah has in the past asserted that any delimitation exercise will protect the interests of southern states.
Also read: Southern states told delimitation will be taken care of : MHA
Moreover, a few days ago, in a carefully crafted step 64-year-old Nainar Nagenthran was declared the new Tamil Nadu BJP president. His appointment came a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah declared the revival of the BJP-AIADMK alliance for the 2026 state Assembly elections and named AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami or EPS as the alliance’s leader.
Nagenthran replaced K Annamalai, a notable BJP leader in the state, whose dedication in bringing the spotlight to the BJP in a state where it has a limited presence has been noticed by the party's higher-ups. It can be expected that Annamalai’s exit can be a part of a calculated strategy to recalibrate the party’s leadership profile in the state, particularly in view of the alliance with the AIADMK to take note of which Shah has planned a trip to the state ahead of the 2026 polls.
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