Race on for next Tamil Nadu BJP chief

L. Ganesan and C.P. Radhakrishnan are likely contenders

With Tamil Nadu BJP president Pon. Radhakrishnan becoming a Minister of State, the focus is now on choosing his successor.

The race for the top slot has gained momentum with the expectation that Mr. Radhakrishnan is likely to resign from the post to focus on his responsibilities as a Minister. He has been given the Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises portfolio, which sources said, would require much work in case the new government undertook disinvestment in PSU’s stridently.

However, a senior leader, on condition of anonymity, said the constitution of the party did not expressly bar a person from holding a party and a government post. “This is mostly a matter of convention.”

Mr. Radhakrishnan would have to follow the decision that BJP national president Rajnath Singh, now the Union Home Minister, would take. “If Mr. Singh steps down from the party post, Mr. Radhakrishnan will also have to do so,” the leader pointed out, adding that two other State presidents, Harsh Vardhan of Delhi and Narendra Singh Tomar from Madhya Pradesh, had also become Union Ministers.

Meanwhile, sources in the State BJP said a list of probables for president was a long one.

This included L. Ganesan, who was among the leaders who built the party in Tamil Nadu from scratch in the 1990s, and C.P. Radhakrishnan, who was the party’s Coimbatore candidate in the Lok Sabha elections.

Two others — H. Raja, one of the senior-most leaders and the State vice-president, and S. Mohan Rajulu, the organising secretary — were also in the fray, sources said.

“While organising secretaries usually do not contest for the State president’s post without a break, there have been exceptions. Mr. Mohan Rajulu played a key role in alliance formation for the Lok Sabha elections,” a leader said.

Also in the reckoning are two women leaders — Tamilisai Soundarrajan and Vanathi Srinivasan — who have, over the last two years, emerged as the party’s faces in the media. The fact that the State unit has never had a woman at the helm is adding to their advantage.