BJP org secretary Kesavavinayagam moved to RSS work ahead of polls

Chennai: The BJP on Monday has decided to relieve its Tamil Nadu general secretary (organisation), Kesava Vinayagam from the post and reassign him to full-time RSS work. Prasobha Kumar, a party functionary from Kanyakumari district, is likely to take over the post.The decision was taken after a meetings held by national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh with senior party functionaries at RSS office in Chennai. BJP state president Nainar Nagenthran, former state chiefs K Annamalai and Tamilisai SOundararajan were among those who attended the meetngs.
The move came days after Vinayagam announced a 72-member task force to tour multiple assembly segments for election work. Former state president K Annamalai said he was withdrawing from the election work due to personal reasons. Soon after Annamalai's withdrawal, there were speculations that few more BJP leaders too were upset with the assigned as they were not consulted beforehand. Kesavavinayagam was drafted into a BJP from RSS in 2015 as joint organising secretary. The BJP leaders also discussed election preparedness. ``The discussion was also about strategy to be adopted in candidate selection. Some suggested that new faces should be fielded," said a leader who participated in the discussions. "The idea of the discussion was to field winnable candidates to defeat DMK rather than giving another chance to familiar faces,'' said the leader. Santhosh held a separate meeting with state-level BJP functionaries at the BJP's office, Kamalalayam in T Nagar. He reviewed poll preparedness and asked the state unit to step up booth-level mobilisation, sources said. "He told us BJP would get 20 % more seats allotted in alliance this time compared to the 2021 Assembly elections," a senior BJP leader present at the meeting said. He also cautioned leaders against public statements that could weaken the party's electoral messaging, particularly amid recent internal discussions over campaign roles and panel assignments.