K Annamalai, one of the key faces of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Tamil Nadu, left for Delhi on Monday amid resignation buzz. Reports claimed that the former BJP state president could tender his resignation from the party.
Annamalai is expected to formally convey his decision to BJP’s national chief Nitin Nabin in Delhi on Tuesday, multiple senior BJP sources told The Indian Express.
He will reach Delhi on Monday evening. It’s not just a political meeting but also “a gesture of gratitude towards a party with which he spent the last six years of his public life”, sources were quoted as saying.
“He wants to thank the leadership for the opportunities, experiences and political journey the BJP gave him after he resigned from the IPS,” a top source told The Indian Express.
Breaking the silence over the speculations, Annamalai said, “Please wait. We will sit down and talk in two days.”
Earlier, it was being deliberated in political circles whether Annamalai would launch a new political party.
Sources told NDTV that Annamalai is set to launch a “new movement” in the state shortly after his birthday on 4 June.
The initiative may reportedly aim to enrol like-minded individuals and build a strong volunteer network. The new movement is expected to operate on a larger scale and seek to attract volunteers from diverse professional and social backgrounds, NDTV reported.
Congress MP Karti P Chidambaram posted on X, “One more political party in TN is in the offing, the churn accelerates.” He also hinted at discussions around the proposed name of the movement, adding: “(MS – There is an interesting logic to the proposed name).” Some suggest this could be ‘Makkal Sakthi Iyakkam’ (People’s Power Movement).”
If these rumours prove to be true, Annamalai’s exit would mark a significant political departure in Tamil Nadu, especially after the rise of actor-turned-politician Vijay following his win in the Tamil Nadu polls 2026.
Who is K Annamalai?
Annamalai is a prominent BJP face in Tamil Nadu, and was often seen as the future of the party in the state.
He earlier held the post of BJP state president, before resigning in April 2025. Ahead of the 2026 Tamil Nadu elections, he stepped down from his responsibility as an election in-charge of six Assembly constituencies, citing his father’s health condition, according o PTI.
Annamalai was also an Indian Police Service officer in Karnataka, and was popular as the real-life ‘Singham’.
According to the New Indian Express, Annamalai was born in a family of farmers in a village in Karur district of Tamil Nadu. He is an engineer by training, and later completed his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow.
Following his education in the PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore and IIM, Lucknow, Annamalai went on to join the Indian Police Service in 2011.
After nearly a decade in the Indian Police Service, he resigned as Deputy Commissioner of Police (South), Bengaluru, in May 2019, citing his desire to spend time with his family, the report added.
In his short career, he had reportedly cultivated a reputation for integrity. Later, he joined politics.
In his memoir Stepping Beyond Khaki: Revelations of a Real-life Singham, Annamalai wrote that a trip to Kailash in 2018 and the untimely death of a senior officer he deeply admired gave him the final impetus to take an uncharted path, the New Indian Express reported.
He joined the BJP in 2020 and became the youngest state president of the party in Tamil Nadu in 2021.
However, in the run-up to the Tamil Nadu Assembly polls, the BJP chose to remove Annamalai from the state president’s post in April 2025.
The move to replace him with Nainar Nagenthran, an ex-AIADMK leader, was widely seen as paving the way for reviving the BJP’s alliance with the AIADMK under Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS).
It was also believed back then that AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami had demanded the removal of Annamalai as state president during his recent meeting with Amit Shah.
Annamalai’s emergence as a potential chief ministerial aspirant was perceived by the AIADMK as a direct challenge to Palaniswami’s dominance within the alliance.
In 2023, AIADMK leader KC Karuppannan had reportedly said, “The AIADMK broke the alliance with BJP because they were insisting on accepting Tamil Nadu BJP leader K Annamalai as the chief ministerial candidate in the 2026 assembly elections.”
According to reports, differences also emerged over the BJP’s electoral strategy ahead of the 2026 Assembly election.
As per NDTV, Annamalai had favoured the BJP contesting independently. However, the BJP leadership revived its alliance with the AIADMK, a move widely seen as a strategic decision to consolidate opposition votes against the ruling DMK.
Annamalai neither contested the 2026 Assembly election nor played a prominent role in the BJP campaign.
He was also not immediately accommodated in a national organisational position, despite expectations among his supporters that he would be elevated by the central leadership, NDTV claimed.
Now, Annamalai is expected to launch a “new movement”.
A few days back, Annamalai urged the Union Education Ministry to roll back its recent notification making three languages compulsory for class IX students, and instead stick to its previous commitment to introduce three languages, of which two shall be Indian, from the academic year 2029-30.
On 15 May 2026, the CBSE had issued a notification to all affiliated schools introducing a third compulsory language for class IX students from the current academic year, advancing a deadline that was previously set for 2029-30.
What does Annamalai want?
According to The Indian Express, several leaders familiar with internal conversations said Annamalai’s message to the party’s national leadership had effectively narrowed to two options:
“Restore him to a position where he could lead the BJP in Tamil Nadu with long-term autonomy and authority – for at least seven years – or allow him to pursue a different political path.”
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