New Delhi: As the stage readies for PM Modi's historic swearing-in ceremony for the third consecutive term, some top BJP leaders from southern India including K Annamalai and Suresh Gopi are likely to be inducted into the Council of Ministers of the new government, claimed sources. 

After Annamalai is inducted into the Council of Ministers, highly placed sources claimed that the Tamil Nadu BJP President post would be assigned to someone else.

Annamalai, the 39-year-old former IPS officer, lost the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 from the Coimbatore constituency to rival Ganapathy Rajkumar of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). He joined the BJP in 2019 and became the president of the party's Tamil Nadu unit in 2021.

Suresh Gopi: The Saffron Star of South 

The BJP push in South India yielded a historic outcome as the saffron camp made its debut from Kerala in the 18th Lok Sabha election.  

Suresh Gopi, a renowned action hero of the Malayalam film industry, clinched a historic victory in the Thrissur Lok Sabha seat with a margin of 74,686 votes. Out of the seven Thrissur assembly constituencies, he emerged victorious in five of them.

With 412,338 votes, Gopi surged ahead of Left Democratic Front (LDF) leader and former agriculture minister V.S. Sunil Kumar, who garnered 3,37,652 votes. 

The BJP leader, however, clarified that he was not looking to become a Union minister as all he wants is that the ministries implement the projects he proposes for the welfare of the people of Kerala.

“Please do not confine me to a room. As an MP I can do the work of various ministries. I do not want to be a minister. There can be new revolutionary working platforms.” 

"All I want is that when I go with a project for the people of Kerala with determination, the ministries concerned should implement it," he said when asked which ministry he would prefer to head.