Former IPS officer Kuppusamy Annamalai gets deputy leader slot in State BJP

Four days after he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, IPS officer-turned-politician Kuppusamy Annamalai was made the deputy leader of the state BJP unit, informed the State president, L Murugan. This comes a day after the ex-cop was booked by Coimbatore city police on charges of unlawful assembly and violation of the Epidemic Diseases Act.

The Karnataka cadre IPS officer K Annamalai, who resigned from the service last September, joined the BJP in New Delhi on Tuesday in the presence of general secretary P Muralidhar Rao and the party's Tamil Nadu chief L Murugan.

On Thursday, he arrived at the BJP party office on VKK Menon Road in Coimbatore. A group of party functionaries and cadres felicitated him in front of the office by offering a 'Vel' -- the divine spear of Lord Muruga. Later, he addressed the media as well as party members.

"The city police have taken action against the former IPS officer and other BJP functionaries taking into account that they have conducted a ceremony by gathering a crowd at a public place, while the lockdown protocol was in force in the city. So, police have registered a case against Annamalai, Nandhakumar, Selvakumar, Sekar and Kanagasabapathy," said a police official.

However, the saffron party seems to be making all the right moves to keep itself in the public eye as the composition of the Tamil Nadu unit is now carefully being re-calibrated to keep the caste matrix in balance.