Former Indian Police Service officer Kuppuswamy Annamalai is just four years into his avatar as a politician but is already looking like a pro. At Palladam, on the outskirts of Coimbatore, the Lok Sabha constituency he is contesting from, bursting crackers and the beating of drums greet the arrival of his saffron mini-bus. Dressed in a white dhoti-kurta and sporting a craggy beard and hair, Annamalai steps on the hydraulic lift pedestal that enables him to pop up from the roof of the bus. Outside, party workers wave Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) flags furiously while cut-outs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi beam down from the poles that line the road.
