By Kavita Mistry 
Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah met RSS ideologue and Thuglak magazine editor S Gurumurthy at his residence in Chennai on Friday to discuss political matters.
Shah surprised many by advancing his visit. He arrived at Gurumurthy’s Mylapore home in the afternoon, accompanied by Union Minister L Murugan and BJP’s Tamil Nadu president K Annamalai. The meeting lasted about an hour.
Initially, Shah was scheduled to meet Gurumurthy in the evening before leaving the city. The sudden change caught several state BJP leaders off guard.
“Gurumurthy is known to support ties with the AIADMK, but ultimately the BJP’s national leadership will decide,” said a senior BJP functionary, speaking on condition of anonymity.
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi Palaniswamy (EPS) met Shah a few weeks ago fuelling speculations about the two parties reuniting for an alliance.
Meanwhile, BJP’s other ally in Tamil Nadu, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) underwent a major change, just before Shah’s visit. Party founder Dr S Ramadoss took over as president, demoting his son Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, a former Union Minister, to the post of working president.
Anbumani is believed to support an alliance with the BJP for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, while his father prefers to stay in the AIADMK-led bloc.
The AIADMK leadership has said it is not rushing into any new political alliances and will announce a decision at the right time.
Meanwhile, BJP MLA Nainar Nagendran visited the party’s state headquarters, Kamalalayam, in T Nagar, and submitted his nomination for the state party chief’s role. His visit came amid speculation about a possible change in the party’s state leadership, and ahead of filing his nomination for the BJP state president election.
“Although we announce the process for nominations, it’s usually only the high command’s choice who files,” said a senior BJP leader. “Often, there’s just one name.”