Former chief of the Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party K Annamalai quit the organisation on Friday, with the BJP formally accepting his resignation from its primary membership, ANI reported.

In a video message after his resignation, Annamalai said that he would launch a new political party that would contest the next Assembly elections expected to be held in 2031. “Today, we are going to start a movement,” he said.

He resigned from the Hindutva party less than a month after the National Democratic Alliance lost the Assembly elections in the state.

Annamalai said that he had informed the BJP leadership of his intention to resign on December 4, but had been asked to remain in the party until the work related to the state polls was completed.

He said he had joined the Hindutva party “for a positive change” but the time had come to build a new platform. “I have come to the conclusion that our views don’t align regarding Tamil Nadu”, ANI quoted his resignation letter as saying.

In his video message, he expressed respect for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but said that after a certain level “small problems keep creeping up”. Annamalai added that he did not want to be a recurring problem for the party leadership.

“We need to move away from cult politics and promote common man politics,” he said.

Reacting to the resignation, the BJP’s Tamil Nadu chief Nainar Nagendran said it would have no impact on the party, ANI reported. “The allegation that importance is not being given to state-level rights is incorrect,” he added.

Nagendran said the BJP was an ideology-based party and that Annamalai’s departure would not impact it.

“Anyone is free to start a political party,” Nagendran said. “In a democracy, everyone has that right.”

In the election results announced on May 4, actor-politician Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, on its electoral debut, emerged as the single-largest party in Tamil Nadu. While the party won 108 seats, it fell short of the majority mark of 118 seats in the 234-member Assembly.

The ruling Secular Progressive Alliance, mainly comprising the DMK, the Congress and some Left parties, won 73 seats.

The NDA, mainly comprising the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the BJP, won 53 seats. Of these, the AIADMK won 47 seats and the BJP one.

On May 10, Vijay became the chief minister after the Congress, two Left parties and the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi agreed to support his coalition government. This resulted in the first non-DMK, non-AIADMK-led state government in nearly 60 years.

Annamalai served as an Indian Police Service officer between 2011 and 2019, when he voluntarily retired. He joined the BJP in 2020 and served as the party’s Tamil Nadu chief between July 2021 and April 2025.

He lost the 2021 Assembly elections from the Aravakurichi constituency by more than 24,000 votes. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, he lost in the Coimbatore parliamentary constituency by more than 1.1 lakh votes.

In 2023, AIADMK leaders had cited remarks made by Annamalai about late Dravidian leader CN Annadurai as among the reasons for the party ending its alliance with the BJP at the time.

The aggressive politics practiced by Annamalai had repeatedly angered the AIADMK in the past.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

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