Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu), March 27 Tamil Nadu BJP chief Nainar Nagenthran announced on Friday that he would contest from the Sattur Assembly constituency in the Virudhunagar district in the April 23 elections.
He would be switching from the Tirunelveli constituency, where he won in the 2021 Assembly election.
According to a senior BJP leader, this decision is a strategy to expand the BJP's presence in the state.
In addition to Nagenthran, Vanathi Srinivasan, the president of the party's Mahila Morcha, who won from Coimbatore South in 2021 defeating actor-politician Kamal Haasan, is likely to switch to another constituency.
Speaking to reporters during his visit to Kanyakumari today, Nagenthran said that he would be contesting from the Sattur constituency.
"I will be contesting from Sattur for the April 23 Assembly election. The NDA candidates will emerge victorious in the election," he said.
Although the BJP was allocated 27 seats by the AIADMK during the recent seat-sharing agreement, the party was not given the Tirunelveli and Coimbatore South seats.
When asked if she was switching to another constituency, Srinivasan told the media in Chennai on March 26 that the party high command would decide who should contest from where.
"I will abide by the party's decision," she said.
The BJP has not yet officially announced its list of candidates.
Denying that the BJP had to give up its seats, Nagenthran told reporters that the constituencies were discussed and decided during the seat-sharing talks with the AIADMK.
"The NDA candidates are contesting from all the 234 constituencies, and when we win the election, AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami will be the Chief Minister," the BJP leader said.
During the negotiations, the BJP was offered many seats in the Coimbatore region, he added.
When asked whether his predecessor K Annamalai would contest, Nagenthran replied, "the party high command will decide on it."
Nagenthran joined the BJP from the AIADMK in 2017. He was made the party president in April 2025, succeeding Annamalai.
He was elected from the Tirunelveli constituency in 2021 as a BJP candidate and had won from this constituency as an AIADMK nominee in the 2001 and 2011 elections, but lost the seat in the 2006 and 2016 polls.