Former Tamil Nadu BJP president K. Annamalai on Friday announced his resignation from the party’s primary membership and declared his intent to launch "a new political movement" and eventually a political party.

The political churn came a month after movie star C. Joseph Vijay’s spectacular electoral success as leader of the TVK in the 2026 Assembly polls and his strenuous bid to form a coalition government.

Vijay rode a youth wave to power on the promise of ensuring “true secularism and social justice” and presenting the TVK as an alternative to the major regional Dravidian parties in the state — the DMK and the AIADMK.

Annamalai hails from a family of agriculturists at a village in Coimbatore district and was an IPS officer before he joined the BJP in 2020. He quickly became one of the poster boys of the party and had the blessings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, Annamalai was replaced as state BJP chief with Nainar Nagendran before the Assembly polls this year in an apparent bid to help galvanise the support of the dominant OBC Thevar community in favour of the party.

With the BJP washout in Tamil Nadu — the party managed to win just one Assembly seat (Ooty) — and chief minister Vijay assuring the minorities that their interests would not be compromised on his watch, political observers said a counter to the "pro-Right majoritarian" politics was expected in the state sooner rather than later. The AIADMK, with 47 seats, is also struggling with four of its MLAs recently switching to the TVK.

Against this backdrop came Annamalai’s measured statement on Instagram on Friday of his plan to breathe fresh life into his grassroots NGO and to train and develop a new crop of young volunteers and activists to reach out to the people.

The NGO aims to "connect with local causes that inspire change.

“This is a new political movement, a new pathway, a good politics for the common man,” Annamalai, 42, said, urging his supporters and well-wishers to join online on www.wetheleader.org and make it a movement with a strong network.

Annamalai made no bones about his differences with the state BJP over its style of functioning and how he felt stifled, saying that as early as December 2025, he had told the national leadership that he wanted to “quit” the party.

Vijay’s stunning political rise, which showed that a party that commanded the support of the youth could win an election by smashing caste and religious barriers, appears to have been a trigger behind Annamalai’s new political venture.

In his Instagram address, Annamalai said there was a need for another political party in Tamil Nadu that would move away from "permanent positions" in the outfit or flaunt family links.

Annamalai said there was a need to “train a large number” of cadres, volunteers and grassroots workers to attune them to the sensitivities and demands of a brand of politics dedicated to the welfare of the common people.

Annamalai said the movement would be converted into a political party at the right time. The new party will eschew individual-centric, cult-based politics, he said, appearing to take a swipe at Vijay. The party will not have any permanent posts like president, and MPs and MLAs will be rotated on the basis of performance.

“We would like to contest the local body elections in Tamil Nadu due in November/December, but definitely our party will contest the next general election in the state,” Annamalai said.