The BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit is witnessing internal unease after the party announced a fresh set of state-level office-bearers during the Assembly election period. District and mandal-level functionaries and workers have expressed dissatisfaction, saying the move has added to confusion when campaign work is already under way.
State and district office-bearers were announced only a few months ago after a prolonged delay, and party activities had begun to stabilise, according to party sources. With the Assembly election announcement, the unit has also been dealing with extended negotiations over seat-sharing, which eventually resulted in 27 constituencies for the BJP, with the number said to have gone up to 35 after the lotus symbol was allotted to some other parties.
Amid nomination filing and campaign preparations, state president Nainar Nagendran issued an announcement appointing 22 state secretaries across various wings, party members said. Among the appointments cited were Thaalai Mutharasu as deputy president of the state advocates’ wing, Vijayakumar as its secretary, Anbarasan as state secretary of the medical wing, and Kicha Ramesh and Arunraj as state secretaries of the trade wing.
The appointments also cover multiple wings including local body affairs, retired government employees, government liaison, unorganised labour, spirituality and temple development, central welfare schemes, cooperatives, NGOs, Tamil literature and development, arts and culture, weavers, economics, national languages, sports, skill development and industry professionals.
Party functionaries said the selections were made without consultation, and warned that the sudden addition of new state secretaries could create overlapping authority during election work. They argued that such announcements were unnecessary at a time when the organisation is already under strain, and could lead to further confusion and discontent on the ground.
