The race is on in the Tamil Nadu BJP to head the state unit. The race is made possible by the elevation of state president L Murugan from state politics to the centre. Murugan was one of the 43 leaders who were webbed by the drive of cabinet expansion, carried out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister has reshuffled and expanded the cabinet in which several new faces were inducted to the Central ministry. 

L Murugan is one of the new faces and on Thursday, he has taken charge as the Union Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying. Murugan will be working along with Sanjeev Balayan and he will be reporting to Parshottam Rupala, who is the Cabinet Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying.   Prior to becoming the Union Minister, Murugan was serving as the Tamil Nadu BJP President. 

As per the principle, the BJP is exercising the system of 'One person-One post' and as Murugan has been elevated as the Union Minister, he would be resigning his post as the Tamil Nadu BJP President. His resignation would prompt a fresh and intense race between the party's second-line leaders to succeed Murugan and become the state BJP President at a high time when it is expected that Murugan's elevation would give an ample boost to the party's state unit. 

Murugan was appointed as the Tamil Nadu BJP President in March 2020 amid a hectic race and the leaders who had lost that race are now eyeing to find a track in the fresh battle of winning the state presidency. According to reports close to the developments, the current vice presidents of the state unit Nainar Nagendran and Annamalai are leading in the race as they fall under the tag of immediate line of succession to Murugan.

While the BJP Central High Command is yet to come into the picture, the reports throw the predictions that Nainar Nagendran is leading in the race than Annamalai. Annamalai was the former IPS officer and he has joined the party last year as a political newbie. However, Nagendran has a sound political experience and has been serving as the party's vice president. 

Arming his possibilities, Nainar Nagendran is one of the four BJP MLAs in the current Tamil Nadu Assembly and he also has been serving as the leader of BJP in the assembly. He carries decades-long political experience and he has been representing the Tirunelveli constituency. The party's principle warrants that a state president must be a member of the party for a minimum of five years. 

If this clause gets invoked, the reports say that both Nagendran and Annamalai would lose the race as both of them didn't hold the membership for five years. Nagendran had joined the party in 2017 while Annamalai had joined the party in August 2020. However, the party may breach the clause if it decides to appoint Nagendran as the new state president. It has been reported that the BJP High command will soon be tabling the meet and electing the new state president. 

While Nainar Nagendran and Annamalai are leading contenders in the race, some of the other senior leaders including General Secretary KT Raghavan, former National Secretary H Raja, and former state president Pon Radhakrishnan are also hoping to succeed Murugan. These leaders were also in the race when Murugan defeated them and succeeded Tamilsai Soundarajan. 

While the Union Minister post is the reward for Murugan from Modi for delivering four BJP MLAs in the recently-held state assembly polls, the new president would have a pile of challenges going in the flow. The new president will be taking up from where Murugan has left and he/she will be leading the party in the state most likely till the next Lok Sabha polls and the new president will also face a challenge of fixing the fracturing alliance with the ADMK as the state is inching closer for the local body polls in nine new districts.