Chennai, April 4 -- Following his exclusion from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate list for the upcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, former state BJP president K Annamalai on Saturday clarified that he "wasn't denied a ticket, but he chose not to contest."

Briefing reporters at Chennai airport, Annamalai expressed gratitude to the party high command for respecting his decision, adding that he had already submitted a written communication stating that he would not contest from any constituency but would instead campaign for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

"Yesterday, Prime Minister Modi visited Chennai. After completing his campaign in Puducherry, he is scheduled to meet party functionaries today. Following that, he w...