Annamalai Blamed for BJP's Shameful Loss in Tamil Nadu
K annamalai, the state head of the bharatiya janata party (BJP) in tamil Nadu, came under scrutiny following the party's lacklustre performance in the 2024 lok sabha elections. Kalyana Raman, a senior bjp politician, strongly accused annamalai of misleading the BJP's top leadership about the party's expansion in tamil Nadu. He went on to refer to annamalai as a "pathological liar." With annamalai, the bjp candidate in coimbatore, losing to Ganapathy Rajkumar, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), by a margin of 1.14 lakh votes, the bjp was unable to secure any seats in tamil Nadu.
The announcement was made the day after tamilisai Soundarajan, a prominent bjp leader and former governor of Telangana, cautioned the opposition and BJP's IT departments not to damage the reputations of top party officials during a news conference in Chennai. tamilisai said that the DMK's IT wing had called her a "parattai," a derogatory term for coarse or wiry hair that is frequently used to discriminate against people based on their caste, class, or racialized ideas of what constitutes "ideal hair." She further stated that anybody attempting to depict party officials in an unfavourable light, even those affiliated with the bharatiya janata party, will data-face severe disciplinary action.
Annamalai informed the media following the party's loss that the bjp had increased its share of the state's votes and that the electorate had demonstrated that the party was headed in the right path. He declared the party will put in twice as much effort to win the lok sabha elections in 2029.
In a post on X, Kalyana Raman observed that the party's vote share had decreased from 2014 to 2024—both years the party had not formed an alliance with the All india Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). The bjp ran for nine seats in 2014, earning 5.56% of the vote, and for twenty-three seats in 2024, earning 11.24%. Stated differently, bjp needed to have received around 14.25% of the vote on a pro-rata basis to match its 2014 performance, he claimed.
Criticising Annamalai's performance in the polls from the coimbatore lok sabha constituency, he stated that although current jharkhand governor CP Radhakrishnan had lost by 43,000 votes in his 2014 battle, annamalai had lost by three times the margin of victory in 2024.
He also accused annamalai of stifling the advancement of senior members of the party like tamilisai soundararajan and Pon Radhakrishnan. He said that annamalai and his "war room thugs" were in complete control of all decision-making.
He also accused annamalai of stifling the advancement of senior members of the party like tamilisai soundararajan and Pon Radhakrishnan. He said that annamalai and his "war room thugs" were in complete control of all decision-making.