"Edappadi K. Palaniswami will be our Chief Minister": Tamil Nadu BJP Chief Nainar Nagendran ahead of polls

Madurai (Tamil Nadu) [India], February 16 (ANI): Tamil Nadu BJP chief Nainar Nagendran on Monday hit out at the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), while reaffirming that Edappadi K. Palaniswami is the party's Chief Ministerial choice ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections.
Addressing a press conference, Nagendran said, "We remain firm in our conviction that Edappadi K. Palaniswami will be our Chief Minister. The Member of Parliament from Virudhunagar has been meeting with the media regularly and addressing them daily."
Nagendran also raised concerns over governance, saying: "Law and order is of utmost importance in any state, yet in Tamil Nadu, the situation has deteriorated to the extent that even appointing a Director General of Police has become difficult."
He also targeted the ruling DMK, stating, "The DMK made 525 election promises, but they have failed to fulfill all of them."
Earlier, he described the DMK and Congress alliance as a "failed engine", as political campaigning intensifies ahead of the upcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.
Nagendran on Tuesday said that after the elections, people will clearly know which is the "failed engine," which is the "box engine," and which is the Vande Bharat engine.
The BJP state president questioned the stability and cohesion of the DMK-Congress alliance, citing what he described as contradictory statements by Congress leaders.
"I hear that the DMK alliance itself is a failed engine. The Congress party keeps making contradictory statements. It is not clear whether Congress will remain in the DMK alliance or whether it will end up as a failed engine," he said, casting doubt on the future of the opposition alliance.
The 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly will go to the polls in the first half of 2026. In the 2021 elections, the DMK-Congress alliance won 151 seats. (ANI)