BJP’s prize fighter, K Annamalai enters the Tamil Nadu poll ring with a punch

K Annamalai is nothing if not confident. This may be his first Lok Sabha election, but there are no signs of it as the Tamil Nadu BJP chief campaigns in his Coimbatore constituency, entertaining supporters till late into the night as they wait to give him a rousing welcome.

There is a basis to that confidence, apart from the crowds. Since he vaulted over senior leaders to take over as state chief, the 39-year-old former IPS officer has kept the BJP in the buzz in Tamil Nadu – and, going by his claims, also in business, in a state where the party is yet to make a mark.

Coimbatore is a largely urban and semi-urban constituency of middle-class residents, with a strong AIADMK and DMK vote base but also a BJP presence – Annamalai’s no-nonsense police pedigree is now an added plus. Plus, Tamil Nadu has been watching the free hand given to him by a party that is otherwise a tight ship run from the top – to the extent of letting his unrestrained criticism of the AIADMK go unchecked, till the BJP ally finally walked out.

The party is set to miss the AIADMK in the coming Lok Sabha elections, but the jury is out on whether this will help the BJP’s long-term interests in the state.

As The Indian Express travels with him for his campaign run through Coimbatore late Thursday evening, Annamalai says that the BJP will get seats “in double digits”, and come second “in all the remaining seats”. Asserting that Tamil Nadu is going to be the face of the BJP’s emergence in the South in the coming elections, he adds: “What we are going to witness is a revolt against the conventional political classes. It’s not just a consolidation (behind the BJP), but a revolt by certain communities and backward classes against traditional Dravidian parties and