Thread by @ssaratht

Mr. @annamalai_k

@BJP4TamilNadu was seen as a small party in the state not having much presence.

Perception was built by the Dravidian ecosystem as a Brahmin party, North Indian party etc.

BJP also was'nt able to change that image till something happened in 2020 with
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Dr. L. Murugan being appointed as the President of the party in Tamil Nadu.

It became a watershed event that smashed the “BJP is a Brahmin party” image to smithereens. Since then, things have started to change at the ground level slowly.
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Around the same time, another very important event happened.

An IPS named K. Annamalai resigned from his job as a Deputy Commissioner (South) Bangalore.
A mechanical engineer hailing from Karur district in Tamil Nadu, who went on to do MBA in IIM but strangely joined

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IPS instead of taking a plum corporate job, who earned the name of Singham in Karnataka and the love of the people there, suddenly decided to resign after a stint of around 8 years at the age of 36 years.

He took a break for several months during which he went on a
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contemplative journey to Kailash, started a foundation for youngsters and was weighing options for the way ahead.

And then, he decides to join the BJP.
Here is where we can’t ignore the great eye for talent that the BJP high command has.
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Their decisiveness showed in Annamalai becoming the Vice President of the TN BJP almost immediately.

It was proved again that the current BJP doesn’t hesitate to elevate a karyakarta to a top job if they think he or she deserves it.
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Soon, we saw another change happening. Dr. L. Murugan was inducted into the Union Cabinet & Annamalai became the new President of the Tamil Nadu BJP.

Everyone in #TamilNadu were curious about this young cop-turned-politician.

The name Annamalai became a sensation overnight.
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People started reading about him.

They started speaking about him.

Today, not a day passes by without any political leader or the media mentioning the name ‘Annamalai’.

He makes news and sometimes he is the news.

In just a year, Annamalai, a political novice,
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has already taken over the Dravidian-dominated political stage of Tamil Nadu.

This also becomes a good occasion to look at how the political situation for the BJP has changed in the state today especially in the last 1 year.

Annamalai first started interacting with the
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Tamil Nadu media addressing everyone as anna (brother) and akka (sister).
Armed with data and details, his pressmeets became battle grounds for the DMK-inclined meddia ecosystem.

No matter how hard they tried to trap him, he proved too smart for them.

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His direct rebuttal to some cheeky media reps has delighted a large section of the Tamil people who see him taking the earlier invincible “eco-system” head on.

Annamalai has made people to sit up and listen to him today.
He has has come a long way from his Aruvakuruchi
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election loss to such a crowd puller that he is today.

People throng his public speeches today and the “eco-system” doesn’t have any other go but to cover him as their TRP soars.

Annamalai has penetrated one wall of the huge Dravidian fort – the media ecosystem media,
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one layer of the onion (as he says) which being peeled every day in-and-out.

Be it exposing the pongal gift scam or the BGR Energy deal, be it the protest against petrol price or the Lavanya case, his tireless travel to various parts of Tamilnadu, Annamalai is proving to
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be a nightmare for the @arivalayam

Annamalai is the BJP’s Brahmastra in Tamil Nadu. Annamalai is doing to Tamil Nadu now what PM @narendramodi did to India back in 2014.
By - Hariharan Iyer & Chitra Ravi Shankar
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