Ex-union minister, former MLAs, state secys in fray for BJP prez role after Tamilisai named Guv

Several senior BJP leaders in Tamil Nadu are eyeing the post of the party’s state unit president after Tamilisai Sounderarajan was named as the governor-designate of Telangana on Sunday.
Sounderarajan was named the chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Tamil Nadu unit in 2014 and her tenure was to end in December 2019.
Unlike in the past when the BJP was a peripheral player in the Dravidian state, with its current tie-up with the ruling AIADMK, the state unit presidentship has become an attractive one.
Sources in the BJP indicated former Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan, former Coimbatore lawmaker CP Radhakrishnan, former state minister Nainar Nagendran who switched from the AIADMK, the BJP’s state general secretaries Vanathi Srinivasan and Karuppu M Muruganantham, R Srinivasan, and national general secretary H Raja are said to be in the race to become the president of the state unit.
The BJP has a significant presence in Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli and Thoothukkudi where Hindu Nadars – who have backed it - are numerically strong. The party is also active in the state’s western belt where Kongu Vellalar Gounders play a decisive role in electoral outcomes and have favoured the BJP in the past.

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