Chennai, Jul 20 (IANS): With the appointment of 38-year-old former IPS officer, K. Annamalai as the Tamil Nadu president of the BJP, the party central leadership has given a clear signal that it meant business.

Annamalai who joined the BJP ten months prior to becoming the state president has been given an uphill task to make the party a major political force and an alternative to the Dravidian political parties of Tamil Nadu in the long run.

With the national parties BJP and the Congress piggy backing on the Dravidian majors, the DMK and the AIADMK for their political survival, the BJP central leadership wants K. Annamalai and his team to chalk out strategies to be in the hearts of the people of Tamil Nadu.

A national leader of the BJP on condition of anonymity told IANS, "BJP is a political party which has spread its wings across North, Central, Western India, and now in North East. Except for Karnataka and now in Puducherry, our presence in the South is minuscule and our strategy is to somehow become a major force in Tamil Nadu which is a big state with a rich culture and tradition."

The Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP is being directed to feel the pulse of the people and to chalk out strategies affecting the grassroots and at the same time to be firm on the party's ideological moorings. Even though the BJP has not made significant inroads in Tamil Nadu, the situation of the RSS is different. It has a sizeable grassroots network but most of the time, the coordination between the two Parivar forces has not been to the liking of the central leadership of the RSS and the BJP.

Sources in the RSS told IANS that the Sangh will formulate proper plans for the new president to implement and will use its grassroots networks for the BJP. The RSS has been active in selfless service across the state and now wants the BJP leadership to conduct proper follow-up among the people on this.

The BJP leadership will also be taking up issues related to the common man and strict instructions have been given to the state BJP leadership to properly communicate to the masses on the various people-centric central government schemes successfully implemented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi ever since he came to power in 2014.

A BJP national leader said, "The Prime Minister has brought in several people friendly schemes but there was no proper awareness on the same among the local masses and this flaw has to be rectified. BJP state leadership has been instructed to conduct a proper awareness programme among the local, booth level people and to help people avail of central government schemes."

The party's Tamil Nadu spokesman K.T. Raghavan told IANS, "BJP is a political party with strong ideological moorings and we will conduct door to door campaigning on Prime minister's people-friendly schemes and educate the public on these and how they benefit the people."