Long-time BJP leader, author of memoir around Modi, Tamilisai Soundararajan seems set for move from Raj Bhavan to TN poll ring

Signalling a potential return to electoral politics, Tamilisai Soundararajan, the Governor of Telangana and Lieutenant-Governor (L-G) of Puducherry, tendered her resignation Monday. An official statement from her office confirmed that she had submitted her resignation to the President of India, amid reliable reports from the BJP leadership that she might contest from the largely urban Chennai South constituency in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

If the BJP picks her, it would be overlooking the claims of three other leaders who are eyeing the same seat for its traditional Hindu votebank.

The daughter of former state Congress chief Kumari Ananthan, Soundararajan has been an influential figure in the BJP for over a decade, diverging from her familial political lineage.

In her political career with the BJP spanning over two decades, Soundararajan has held important electoral and administrative posts. However, her appointment as the Tamil Nadu BJP chief in 2014 — with Amit Shah’s brief to “develop the party’s base outside the Hindi heartland” — had surprised many.

The distinct advantage Soundararajan is believed to have had over other BJP leaders in the state was her proximity to the top leadership. Back in 2011, she had referred to Narendra Modi as “the next PM”, from the stage of the Sadbhavana Yatra in Ahmedabad. BJP sources said her comparison of Modi with the late Tamil cinema matinee idol and Tamil Nadu CM, M G Ramachandran, went down well with the then Gujarat chief minister.

Soundarajan went on later to write a memoir, Narendra Modi and Memorable Tea Moments, about her meetings with Modi.

She was made the Governor of Telangana in September 2019, after a string of electoral defeats, including in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from