Tamil Nadu BJP President Annamalai has revealed that he got a call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the results of the Tamil Nadu urban local body polls in which the BJP has won a handful of seats by contesting independently. The state BJP president took to Twitter and extended his gratitude to the Prime Minister for his phone call and for commending the hard work of the BJP cadres in securing the victory. 

The urban local body polls in Tamil Nadu were held on Saturday and it was the first major election for Annamalai as the BJP President and ahead of the polls, the party has announced that it will contest independently by breaking the alliance with the ADMK. As announced, BJP has fielded candidates in most of the seats and the results were declared on Tuesday. 

While the ruling DMK had bagged a landslide victory, BJP has managed to increase the numbers of wards secured by the party in urban local bodies as compared to the last urban polls in 2011. However, it is pertinent to note that the total number of local bodies had surged in 2022 and based on the current data, the party didn't pose a tough competition to the other contenders but it has been clamouring that it has become the third-largest party in Tamil Nadu. 

BJP President Annamalai has been claiming that the party's victory implies that the people of Tamil Nadu have begun to support Prime Minister Modi. According to reports, BJP had fielded 5,480 candidates in the local body polls and reaped dozens of seats at every level, though it was not in the fashion of awarding a major breakthrough for the party. 

In the urban local body polls, BJP has won 22 wards out of 1374 wards in the municipal corporations, 56 wards out of 3843 wards in the municipalities, and 230 wards out of 7621 wards in the town panchayats. According to the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission, the Congress party has won 73 wards in the municipal corporations, 151 wards in municipalities, and 368 wards in town panchayats. 

Speaking to the reporters on Tuesday - February 22 following the election results, Annamalai said, "We have contested independently in the local body polls to showcase the strength of BJP. Our alliance with ADMK nationally will continue and BJP is getting strengthened. People are ready to accept BJP completely. BJP has become the third-largest party in Tamil Nadu through its hard work."