Back To The Booth: Can Nainar Nagendran Fix Tamil Nadu BJP's Last Mile Issues?

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Tamil Nadu has long faced criticism for its weak booth-level organisation and election management compared to the dominant Dravidian parties. Often labelled a 'social media party', it has relied heavily on debates, press conferences and protests to challenge the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).

Yes, there are pockets where this structure is robust, such as Chennai (as noted in this ground report), or the party’s traditional strongholds like Kanyakumari and Coimbatore, but elsewhere, the situation remains challenging.

While the BJP did strengthen itself over the last few years leading up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, in which it performed quite well, getting an 11 per cent vote share, the party faced a sobering reality in the election results, failing to secure a single seat.

This outcome, despite the high-decibel campaign, Annamalai’s statewide En Mann En Makkal padayatra, the release of DMK Files and Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading the effort to show that the party cares for Tamil culture, left a sense of sadness among supporters.

Disappointment over losing Coimbatore was the highest, as it was the seat of their leader, Annamalai, and what was worse is that there were allegations that names of over 1 lakh voters were removed from the list.

While that number is debatable, people started raising questions about the BJP’s election management. This led supporters to wonder whether the party had been caught off guard, given that electoral rolls are released months in advance and shared with all parties.

And if this was the situation in a stronghold like Coimbatore, the challenges in weaker areas like Perambalur or Nagapattinam can only be imagined.

Post Elections: Party in a State of Flux

After the elections, the party was under the management of a committee headed by senior leader H Raja as Annamalai was away on a fellowship. The rest of the year went by mostly in discussions on whether the party would ally with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) or not and organisational elections.

February 2025 finally gave observers clarity on what direction the party had decided to take as AIADMK general secretary Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi. Things were formalised in April and the BJP appointed Nainar Nagendran as the new state president.

New Style of Politics for Tamil Nadu BJP

Nagendran has ushered in a quieter, more methodical approach. Unlike Annamalai, he is much softer and gentler in his speech. Admitting this himself, he said, “Annamalai is like a storm, I am like a breeze.” He is also not as active on social media nor does he do frequent press meets.

As a result, the visibility of the party went down, which worried a lot of supporters. But is the party really inactive or has it been quietly up to something? Turns out it is the latter. And true to his image of being an able organiser, Nagendran has launched a statewide booth-level verification drive to strengthen the party’s grassroots foundation.

The Statewide Booth-Level Verification Drive

Coming back to the issue of the BJP being very much behind the DMK and the AIADMK when it comes to booth-level organisation, the natural question that arises is why so.

The answer for that broadly lies in the political climate of the state. With a large part of the populace under the influence of Dravidian ideology, even if they are not members of a political party, it is difficult for the BJP to find people committed to their kind of politics. Further, even if such people are found, they often do not want to take an active part, for fear of repercussions from the ruling party.

This, according to party leaders who did not wish to be named, has led to the creeping in of malpractices such as fake memberships, double counting, using incorrect phone numbers or not updating lists even if somebody leaves the party. All of this is done to please the higher-ups and show a picture of ‘all is well’ in their booth.

The issue, talked about in hushed tones till now, is now being tackled head on.

A district president, who spoke with this author, said, “Till now we never checked data at the booth level, we used to accept what the Mandal president used to say.”

How Does the Verification Happen

“To curb any chance of wrongdoing, the party has decided to send in workers from outside the district where the verification is to take place. Those who are assigned with the task would visit the residence of the persons, assess their details, see if it is matching the records and make changes accordingly. They would also get an opportunity to get to know the condition of the booth committee members, that is, how active they are, what is their financial status and whether they are the B-team of some other party,” he added.

The programme started with a training session earlier this month for around 1,500 party workers at Chennai.

“Some of these people were then sent to four different parliamentary constituencies to analyse the status of each booth. This is going to happen every other weekend for the next few months, till all 39 constituencies in the state are covered and we have ensured that we have people in every booth,” explained Vinoj Selvam, the party’s candidate from Chennai Central in the 2024 elections.

The initiative is currently limited to workers, with state and district leaders not being involved, but they may be roped in later to supervise the exercise.

The Booth Arithmetic – An Example from Sivaganga

Explaining the booth structure in Sivaganga, district president D Pandidurai said, “We have 1,364 booths in our district. Each booth has 14 members – 1 president, 12 committee members and a booth-level agent. So, in total there are 19,096 members, whose houses have to be visited.

“Through this we will also get to know what category the booth is – A, B or C, with A-category being the most favourable and C-category being the least.”

Usually, a booth contains around 800 voters and so if the party is confident of securing 300–400 votes in the area, it falls under A-category.

“In a multipolar contest, if a party gets about 300–350 votes from each booth (taking 300 booths on average in an assembly constituency in the state), it gets 90,000–1,00,000 votes, which is good enough to win the seat,” he added.

The next stage would be the verification of the electoral roll, under which the heads of Shakti Kendras (three booths) along with booth presidents and committee members would go door to door to see if the available information about voters is correct.

Coimbatore-based BJP leader, Selvakumar, who is also the vice president of the party’s industrial cell, added, “One of the issues with electoral rolls is that it is organised based on when one is enrolled. So, if there are say five voters from a family, it is not necessary that their names would be found together. We are likely to produce booklets of 250–300 voters, organised by family. This would help our booth workers to understand their area better. This is something that is done by parties like the DMK.”

Media Training

Alongside grassroots efforts, Nagendran is also strengthening the party’s public outreach through targeted media training.

Similar to the training camp for BJP workers, day-long sessions were held for the party’s spokespersons and those in charge of social media at the district level.

Explaining the significance of this move, Aseervatham Achary, a senior leader from the state said, “Bad news about our party spreads fast, while good news takes time to reach the people. So, it is important that spokespersons need to be very careful while they speak. If they say anything wrong, it is bad for both – the BJP and the person himself.”

Achary added that the main focus of the party was to take information about the central government’s good work to the people. “The DMK has a habit of putting its sticker on our schemes, whether it is POSHAN Abhiyan (nutrition), or the Pamban bridge, they claim everything that we do as their own contribution.”

“Removing DMK from power and bringing Tamil Nadu to the mainstream is the goal. Once upon a time, it was driven by ideology. Today it is a family party, with the aim of the leaders being how to make more and more money.”

While these efforts signal a promising shift, some sceptics argue that booth committees alone may not suffice. “Communist parties also have well-established committees but they do not succeed,” said one political analyst.

A senior BJP leader put it down to deficiencies in training. “The party lacks what can be described as the ability to get its voters to vote. We need to train our workers for that. Some of them are doing a great job but others are the kind of people who join in for party programmes but when it comes to doing the hard work on the ground, they would not be seen.

“Ideally, booth agents should know about each and every voter on the roll, whether he or she would support the party or not and what can be done to win them over. Election management is something that Tamil Nadu BJP lacks and should learn from its political opponents or other state units.”

He suggested that senior leaders of the party, who have had the experience of fighting elections, should be roped in for the purpose.

Alliance Coordination

In parallel with internal reforms, the BJP is also working to strengthen its alliance with the AIADMK to bolster its electoral prospects. However, unlike previous elections, when the BJP was highly dependent on the AIADMK, the party is now much stronger and thus brings a lot more to the table.

Reflecting on the shift in the BJP’s standing, a Mandal president said, “In 2019 and 2021, the BJP did not have any leverage over the AIADMK and so they concentrated only on their seats. This time, we have conveyed to them that in some constituencies, it is we who are second and they who are third. So, if they do not support us, we too would not support them, and both would lose. The realisation seems to be dawning on them.”

Leaders acknowledge that things are still in the initial stages, that is, the synergy among the cadre is yet to come about. A small beginning has been made through members participating in the programmes of AIADMK general secretary Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS), who is touring the state.

While these initial steps are promising, deeper collaboration is essential to fully realise the alliance’s potential.

Emphasising the need for more robust engagement, a party worker from Tirunelveli said, “What is needed is the formation of an alliance committee at various levels. Leaders of both parties should meet often, work together, hold joint protests and in general get to see each other more often.”

He added that the sooner both parties move beyond past animosity and recognise their mutual dependence, the stronger the combine will be.

With Nagendran, arguably the party’s best bet to navigate the choppy waters of coalition politics at the helm of affairs now, these efforts to forge a united front along with the rigorous booth verification drive are likely to redefine the BJP’s trajectory in Tamil Nadu, though only time will reveal the true impact of these changes.