Side-lined in State, Nainar eyes LS polls to bag national role

CHENNAI: Seeing no future in state politics for him, BJP’s floor leader Nainar Nagendran is keen on moving to national politics. He is taking calculative measures to get a ticket for Tirunelveli Lok Sabha constituency in the 2024 elections.

“He is in touch with party’s national president JP Nadda and senior leaders in Delhi and making his moves. The high command has also responded positively for his candidature from the Southern district,” said a party functionary close to the former minister, and is privy to the development.

The recent meeting between AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami-led delegation with Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president Nadda confirmed the continuation of the alliance for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls. Now, they were pushing for favourable seats, including Tirunelveli and more seats. In 2019, the BJP got five seats in the alliance. “If he gets the seat in the AIADMK-led alliance, he will definitely win. He still maintains good rapport with the AIADMK functionaries and cadre in the region. They will extend their full cooperation for his victory,” said the source.

The BJP floor leader resorted to the move after seeing the “new breed” of leaders elbowing out senior functionaries and giving them no space in party affairs and political front. “The strained relationship between Nainar and state president K Annamalai is open secret among the party functionaries and those follow the state politics closely. It is one of the main reasons for Nainar to opt out of the state politics, besides there is no sign of growth for the party in TN except making noise in social media,” a source said.

Nainar was seen as a potential candidate to head the party state unit after Tamilisai Soundararajan was appointed as Telangana Governor in September 2019. But, he was disappointed after the party overlooked him and appointed L Murugan as state chief.

It happened yet again as the party announced new entrant Annamalai as the successor of Murugan, who was given Rajya Sabha seat in September 2021. “Nainar left highly disappointed after the national leadership failed to honour his seniority and respect his potential. Sensing this, a senior DMK leader and Minister from Tiruchy reached out to Nainar to pull him to the ruling party, but he was in a dilemma to take yet another jump,” added a BJP functionary in Thoothukudi.