Thread by @jThiyagu

Annamalai, the Sorcerer to break the 'Dravidian Spell' on Tamil Nadu?

The Statement "National Parties never spoke the language that people in Tamil Nadu understood" in Shri.Annamalai's letter of resignation from the membership of BJP is quite noteworthy. Was BJP at fault for their inability to make inroads in Tamilnadu? 🧵 1/n
#AnnamalaiSpeech #AnnamalaiParty @BaluSreevidya @Trishulwarrior

If one recalls, in the last 5+ years, Prime Minister Modi made several visits to Tamilnadu, quoted Tamil verses, made short quips in Tamil, brought Tamilian heritage back from foreign soil and awarded several developments for the state. He also joined for the celebration of Annamalai's 'En Mann, En Makkal' march around TN.

Then how can Annamalai accuse BJP of not understanding the pulse of Tamilnadu? One need to go a bit deep. 2/n

BJP has been present in Tamilnadu politics for over 3 decades but always had to biggyback on to one or the other of Dravidian parties in every election. The Tamilian voters were brainwashed deep and conditioned, by Dravidian parties particularly DMK and its allies, to think that the present Central govt, BJP and its associate RSS are not secular and hence are against the interests of Tamilnadu, particularly that of minorities. Both DMK and AIADMk allowed Kthemselves to dictated by vested interests and started pushing an agenda against Hindus and BJP.

Annamalai was one of the couple of BJP Leaders who was eloquent in Tamil to bring in clarity in their but the speeches of the BJP leaders from the North didn't help BJP to connect with the Tamilians. 3/n

Though Annamalai's evidence & data driven press conferences on corruption and other state issues along with his months-long and 'En Mann, En Makkal' march around TN helped boosting his image amongst younger voters and educated class, it was insufficient to influence rural voters sufficiently to give a clear win for BJP. Also, the 'Thirumangalam formula' had become so mainstream in Tamilnadu that, several voters even started complaining openly about not receiving the money / incentive to enable them vote.

BJP must have realized that they stood no chance unless the Dravidian parties are degraded sufficiently to eliminate this social shame. BJP thought this can be addressed if the NDA alliance captures power in TN and cajoled EPS for a poll alliance. 4/n

Annamalai differed in this : He had sensed that TN was ready for a change and wanted his party to go alone and contest in all constituencies with sufficient advance preparation. There came the split. It is safe to assume that Annamalai's exit from the party was decided in 2025 when he stepped down as the President of TN-BJP, but was differed due to mutual understanding. His relative silence and other developments made it clear that he was waiting for the 2026 Assembly election to be complete.

Possibly Annamalai and BJP, along with others, didn't expect the wild-card TVK to perform so well and even capture power. It is not a over-statment to say that the awakening brought in to the mind of younger voters of Tamilnadu through his hard work in the last 5+ years gave TVK a victory on a golden platter. Voters who were expecting him to play major role in the election and bring in a change were very much disappointed and swung towards Vijay who was already popular as an actor and young. This is a total miscalculation by BJP. 5/n

TVK's victory definitely benefitted the state : Youngsters decided that the Dravidian parties should not have power anymore. Aged voters collected the huge sums of money and freebies from them and yet ditched them. Post-poll events indicate that possibly by next election, one or more of the Dravidian parties many not exist at all with prior strength. Now many are now questioning whether TVK is any different or even controlled by DMK or a Deep State from behind the scene?

Annamalai's new movement 'We The leaders' has enrolled about 8.5 lakh members in just 8 hours after his address today.
1. Many, particularly youngsters from TN BJP and other parties are waiting for him to launch his party soon to shift sides.
2. One can expect him to filter out tainted hands from other party at the entry stage itself, true to his promise to provide a new political canvas.
3. Soon Annamalai would gain speed to confront Vijay's TVK govt after its honeymoon period over.
4. It is likely to have Hindu identify despite being secular; will be acceptable to minorities due to the sheer size of his impact. 6/n

Did BJP really do a blunder by losing a gem in Annamalai? Given the experience of Amit Shah and Modiji in making difficult things happen, it would be hard to believe that they miscalculated Annamalai's point of view. It wouldn't sound very absurd if one thinks that this is by design to let Annamalai create a 'For the Tamils, Of the Tamils and By the Tamils' govt which is by and large free from the troublesome burden of Dravidian parties.

If that is true, one can expect Annamalai and his party receive background support from BJP and even RSS. Given his straight forwardness, intellect, boldness and sincerity to bringing a real change, his movement could become something unprecedented in size and effect. If this works, definitely Annamalai would turn out to be the sorcerer who unbinds Tamilnadu from the Dravidian Spell very soon. 7/n

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