Amidst the Lok Sabha 2024 election videos trending on social platforms, a video of an engineer-turned-Civil Servant-turned-political leader is going viral on X (formerly known as Twitter). In a video interview for InsideOut with anchor Megha Prasad, Annamalai Kuppusamy was seen speaking about his education, political inspiration, personal life and more.
Annamalai has contested for the Lok Sabha General Elections 2024 from the Coimbatore Constituency representing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
What caught the attention of netizens are his Common Aptitude Test (CAT) and Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) scores. These two are among the tests given for admission into management schools like the renowned Indian Institute of Management (IIMs), Xavier School of Management (XLRI) and others.
Experts from the interview
When asked about how much he scored in CAT, Annamalai said, "I took two exams. So CAT was 99.32%, XLRI was 99.98%." He continued further saying he opted for IIM Lucknow as he couldn't get through the interview call for IIM Ahmedabad as the cut-off was 98 percentile.
Additionally, he added that he wanted to go out of his comfort zone and explore a new culture hence, he choose IIM Lucknow over IIM Kozhikode.
MBA to UPSC
Further, when asked about the shift from management studies to Civil Services, Annamalai said there are two important reasons behind his decision to enter Civil Services and politics. "The Mumbai attack of November 26, 2008. My first year of Master of Business Administration (MBA). It was very bad and it was very insulting for me as a person. That was maybe the small catalyst which was pushing me towards pursuing Civil Services and bringing in change," he said, adding that another aspect is the internship he pursued during his MBA days.
To recall, ten terrorists from Pakistan carried out attacks in multiple locations in Mumbai on November 26, 2008. The Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist group from Pakistan carried out an indiscriminate attack that resulted in the death of 166 persons and over 300 were injured.
"Also, my internship happened, I was one of the very few people in those days to intern with a political party," he added, saying he interned with Indian actor and former leader of Opposition in Tamil Nadu Vijayakanth's party. Although this internship was purely professional-based, he understood that politics wouldn't suit him.
He continued to disclose that he interned in 2009, the same year he attempted the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) prelims followed by Mains in 2010 and continued his service.
"If Modi ji wouldn't have been in politics, I would have continued with my Civil Services or would have started my own NGO (non-government organisation)," he said.
