Editorial: Repackaged with a youthful flavour

Thanks to the holding back of critical portfolios from deserving candidates, stalwarts from regional and national parties have jumped ship to what they see as a greener, youthful pasture in the saffron party. 

The BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit witnessed a leadership change after the reshuffling exercise carried out in the Cabinet of Ministers last week. TN, which has been lamenting a stepmotherly treatment from the Union Cabinet, due to non-representation for over two years, found reason to rejoice as BJP former state president L Murugan was sworn in as the Minister of State (MoS) for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairy. He has also been handed the MoS portfolio for I&B. 

Meanwhile, K Annamalai was anointed as his replacement – as the BJP’s TN state unit president. The former bureaucrat who quit the IPS to pursue his calling in politics, had joined the BJP in August 2020. The duo’s meteoric ascension is being seen as a defiant message from the BJP that it is keen on solidifying its base in the Dravidian heartland, and that any young politician, who is working hard to make that dream a reality, will not go unrewarded. 

Take the case of Murugan, who is in his early 40s and was made the state BJP President in March 2020 after Tamilisai Soundararajan was appointed the Governor of Telangana. The former lawyer, who was a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, affiliated to RSS, had unsuccessfully contested in the 2011 state elections, from Rasipuram constituency in Salem, garnering over 1,700 votes, and coming in third. But what caught the BJP high command’s attention was that Murugan worked hard on strengthening the party’s foothold in TN. Prior to the polls, he managed to organise events like the Vel Yatra, apart from poaching senior leaders from other parties. 

Although he lost to DMK’s Kayalvizhi Selvaraj in the Dharapuram constituency during the 2021 assembly election, his hard work bore fruit in the TN legislative assembly, where four BJP members were elected after a gap of 20 years. Murugan happens to be the second minister from the BJP’s TN unit who was offered a place in the Union Cabinet. Earlier, Pon Radhakrishnan, an MP from Kanniyakumari also bagged an MoS seat during Modi’s reign between 2014-2019. 

K Annamalai’s rise is even more beguiling. The 37-year-old is the youngest to rise to the party president post, and that too in a span of a year of joining BJP. The former 2011 batch IPS officer from Karnataka cadre served as the Deputy Police Commissioner in Bengaluru (South). Despite having unsuccessfully contested in the assembly polls from Aravakurichi, he helped BJP bag two seats in the western TN. Annamalai is known for his fiery speeches that have at times landed him in trouble. He was once booked by the police for intimidating DMK candidate from Karur – Senthil Balaji. 

Even in the past, the BJP has flexed its muscles with the promise of reward and recognition. From the likes of DMK’s P Saravanan who joined BJP in March 2021 and was allotted the ticket for Madurai North constituency, to DMK’s VP Duraisamy, who was the face of Dalit representation in the party who switched over to BJP. Other defectors include Ku Ka Selvam (DMK), Karate R. Thiagarajan (AIADMK) and RC Paul Kanagaraj, founder of TMK. This time, the BJP is not content in attracting hardened veterans. Its focus is on the 2024 elections, and as part of its strategies, it needs an infusion of fresh blood, to portray itself as the cheerleader of a young India. Regional parties will now be compelled to work hard and retain their existing pool of young leaders and employ a culture of greater inclusivity when it comes to handing them a place of pride in the parties.