Nainar Nagendran

Nainar Nagenthran (born 16 October 1960) is an Indian politician who is the state president of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Tamil Nadu (BJPTN), from 12 April 2025. From 19 May 2001 to 12 May 2006, he served as the minister of Tamil Nadu in the ministry led by former chief ministers of Tamil Nadu J. Jayalalithaa and O. Panneerselvam.

He is the current legislative leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. He has won the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly elections from the Tirunelveli constituency in 2001 and 2011 as an All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam candidate and in 2021 as a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate.

Political career He left the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) party in August 2017 to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He was one of several AIADMK party members to do so and soon after his move he was appointed a state-level BJP vice-president.

As an AIADMK candidate, Nagendran was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Tirunelveli constituency in the 2001 and 2011 state assembly elections. and in 2016, when the difference was 601. His opponent in the latter election was A. L. S. Lakshmanan of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), a person he had beaten in 2011 by over 38,000 votes.

Nagendran served variously as a Minister for Electricity, Industry and Transport during the AIADMK-led government of 2001–2006. He was not a member of the cabinet during the AIADMK government led by Jayalalithaa from 2011 but he said it was her death and the subsequent rudderless situation in which the party found itself that caused his move to the BJP in 2017.

In 2021, as a BJP candidate Nagendran has been elected to Tamil Nadu state assembly from Tirunelveli constituency for the third time defeating the DMK candidate by a margin of 23,107 votes. In addition he has been also selected as the leader of BJP members in Tamil Nadu assembly. In 2006, an investigation revealed the accumulation of assets in excess of his income when he was a minister of Tamil Nadu. It also revealed that Nagendran bought properties, including gold jewellery and lands. A chargesheet was filed in December 2010 against Nagendran, his wife and four other relatives under the Prevention of Corruption Act for a ₹3.9 crore disproportionate assets case by the Directorate of Vigilance.

2023 Vadapalani Temple land-grabbing case

In April 2023, the anti-corruption non-governmental organisation Arappor Iyakkam submitted a formal complaint to the Tamil Nadu government alleging an illegal land transaction involving Nainar Nagendran's son, Nainar Balaji, the vice-president of the BJP's youth wing. The complaint alleged an attempt to illegally grab 1.30 acres of land belonging to Vadapalani Andavar Temple, located on Arcot Road in Virugambakkam, Chennai, valued at approximately ₹100 crore in collusion with the land mafia and government officers. According to the complaint, a sale agreement worth ₹46 crore was executed in July 2022 between Nainar Balaji and an individual named Elayaraja while the Patta was originally under the names of Sundaramahalingam and Vasanta, but the revenue department illegally changed the patta to a deceased individual's name (Gulab Doss Narayan Doss) to facilitate the deal. The organization claimed that Nainar Nagendran misused his position as an MLA to pressure or maneuver public servants within the revenue and registration departments into facilitate registering the land parcel in Chennai at Radhapuram sub-Registrar Office (SRO) in the Tirunelveli district in violation of registration procedures and relevant IPC procedures.

An investigation overseen by the Tirunelveli Regional Deputy Inspector General of Registration confirmed prima facie evidence of fraud and procedural lapses. On 10 July 2023, the state registration department officially cancelled the registration of land.

2024 Election cash seizure case During the 2024 Indian general election, on 24 April 2024, the Election Commission’s flying squad recovered ₹4 crore at Tambaram railway station from a train traveling from Chennai Egmore to Tirunelveli. Three individuals were arrested in connection with the incident. The primary accused, Sathish, was identified as a BJP member and the manager of the Blue Diamond Hotel in Chennai, a business linked to Nagendran. During interrogation, the accused stated that the money was being transported to Tirunelveli to distribute to voters under Nagendran’s explicit directives. Police recovered a copy of Nagendran's identity proof from the accused and noted that the men used an Emergency Quota (EQ) train ticket booking request written on Nagendran’s official letterhead.

While the Income Tax Department was initially alerted, the case was formally transferred to the CB-CID Metro wing. By mid-2025, CB-CID investigations escalated. The agency presented evidence in court revealing a hawala network involving multiple top-tier Tamil Nadu BJP functionaries. Call data records (CDRs) confirmed coordination between Nagendran and several state BJP leaders including BJP State Organisation General Secretary Kesava Vinayagam, BJP State Treasurer S.R. Sekhar, and the party's Industrial Wing president Govardhan. Investigators also unearthed a parallel route where nearly ₹1 crore of the operation's cash had been successfully exchanged for 1.5 kilograms of gold.

Controversies Nainar Nagendran has sent death threats against acclaimed Tamil lyricist and writer Vairamuthu in January 2018 for his controversial remarks on Andal. He has announced that BJP leaders are ready to award a cash reward of ₹10 crore if anyone slays and chops the tongue of Vairamuthu. He also said there should be no hesitation in killing even those who speak ill of Hinduism. This created a giant controversy in Tamil Nadu. Later, he was arrested together with Hindu Munnani state vice-president, V. C. Jayabalan, for provocative hate speech that would cause divisiveness among the people and posed a threat to national unity.

On 15 August 2026, Nagendran made a personal remark involving the mother of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay at BJP's party headquarters in Chennai. Responding to an earlier "where is your father" jibe made by Vijay in the Assembly regarding DMK leader Udhayanidhi Stalin, Nagendran stated that instead of searching for a father in the Legislative Assembly, one should go home and ask their mother to know who the father is. The comment drew widespread condemnation across political lines including BJP vice president Khushbu Sundar and former BJP state chief K. Annamalai. A complaint was lodged against Nagendran at the Director General of Police (DGP) office by a woman advocate seeking police action for public misconduct and defamation. Nagendran issued a clarification stating that his speech had been twisted and misrepresented for political gain.

Elections contested and positions held Lok Sabha elections

Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly elections

Positions in Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly