why his political plans have accelerated after BJP exit

Annamalai’s “We The Leaders” movement, which had set an ambitious membership target of five million, has struggled to move beyond roughly two million supporters, said people familiar with the exercise. Apart from the slow recruitment, the concern is that political enthusiasm surrounding Annamalai may diminish further if he waits too long to offer his supporters an election to fight. A political project conceived with the luxury of time is discovering the inconvenience of having too much of it.

Annamalai has consequently begun advancing his plans. On October 14, he announced that “We The Leaders” would contest the local body elections, expected to be held next year. The following day, he inaugurated the Abdul Kalam Centre for Ethics and Politics in Coimbatore, presenting it as an institution for training a new generation of grassroots leaders.

The changes suggest that an intended year of political preparation might be compressed into six months, bringing forward Annamalai’s first electoral test outside the BJP.

Hurdles before Annamalai

The difficulty, partly, is one of timing. Annamalai rose to prominence in the political atmosphere following the deaths of former Chief Ministers Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi, when Tamil Nadu appeared to have room for a new generation of leaders. That space now looks considerably more crowded.

Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) has won an unprecedented electoral victory and formed the government. The former actor has moved from the cinema screen to the Chief Minister’s Office, leaving Annamalai to compete not with a hypothetical political newcomer but one already exercising power. Speculation about actor Dhanush’s possible political entry has added another prospective name to the conversation. In short, Tamil Nadu, once thought to be waiting for its next political star, has a rather crowded audition schedule.

Yet, Annamalai remains an unusual figure in that field. A former IPS officer, he is among the state’s most articulate politicians, something even some of his rivals acknowledge.

A senior DMK leader said Annamalai could become a formidable opponent of Vijay even with a relatively small legislative presence.

“Unlike what Udhayanidhi Stalin does with a big team of veteran politicians, if Annamalai enters the Assembly, even if his party is among the smallest, he can build a strong opposition to Vijay almost single-handedly,” the leader said.

The assessment reflects a feature of Annamalai’s political career: his individual visibility has often been considerably greater than the organisational strength available to him.

That distinction has become more consequential since his departure from the BJP. According to a person close to Annamalai, his ambitions could have been accommodated within the BJP had his principal objective been a national political career.

Building an independent party, however, requires something different: establishing political distance from both the BJP-led Union government and Vijay’s administration in Tamil Nadu.

Annamalai spent more than half a decade as one of the BJP’s most recognisable faces in Tamil Nadu. His political identity was closely associated with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, even as his relations with other political leaders, including AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami and even some top BJP leaders, moved between confrontation and accommodation.

He has also altered positions on earlier political disputes, including withdrawing a case involving senior DMK leader T R Baalu. Rival politicians who acknowledge his potential also describe a tendency to make consequential decisions hurriedly.

Sharp criticism

Now, Annamalai has criticised the BJP and the political practices of the Modi government. In an unusually sharp statement on October 21, he questioned the crackdown on the protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) in Delhi and recalled Modi’s criticism in 2011 — as Gujarat Chief Minister — of police action against protesters in Delhi.

Annamalai said Modi had been right then. The implication was that the same democratic principle should apply to the government Modi now leads. He questioned why protesters faced prolonged detention, why bail sureties were allegedly rejected, and why a police officer belonging to the force involved in the case could also exercise powers concerning detention.

His most pointed remarks concerned the political language used against dissenters. “Enough of branding everyone an anti-national,” he said. He also complained that the government, despite having been in power at the Centre for more than 12 years, appeared continually to need an enemy to sustain its political relevance.

The statement was not an unqualified endorsement of the protesters. Annamalai said he disagreed with several CJP methods and also questioned Congress’s conduct during the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. He cautioned Opposition parties against discrediting democratic institutions wholesale because of alleged misconduct by individuals.

But the shift in emphasis is unmistakable. A politician once identified with the BJP’s combative nationalism is beginning to speak more insistently about civil liberties, procedural fairness, and the right to dissent. Whether that change amounts to a convincing independent political identity remains an open question.

For those closely tracking the former IPS officer’s political career, the question is whether he can attract support beyond the legions of admirers he acquired during his BJP years and the substantial support he has among his own OBC Gounder community.

Also, unlike established parties with recognisable figures across districts, “We The Leaders” remains overwhelmingly associated with Annamalai himself. The inauguration of the Kalam centre in Coimbatore was an attempt to address that weakness precisely. Named after the former President, the centre proposes a two-day foundation course, a four-week leadership academy, and a 100-day field programme. Its first cohort consists of 100 women involved in community and civic activities. The longer-term ambition is to train at least a lakh grassroots volunteers.

Will he target Vijay?

There is also a confrontation still largely missing from Annamalai’s political vocabulary at the moment. He has begun challenging the BJP and Modi, but has yet to mount a comparable attack on Vijay, whose government represents the most immediate obstacle to his ambitions in Tamil Nadu.

For Annamalai, opposing the BJP without seriously confronting the TVK would leave his independent movement with an incomplete political purpose. The local elections could force that choice sooner than he originally intended.

“Annamalai’s problem is therefore not a shortage of political ability. Even his biggest rivals regard him as a potentially formidable legislative performer. It is the distance between commanding attention and building a party capable of retaining it. For years, his speeches could draw an audience already assembled by the BJP. Now he must assemble the audience himself, persuade it to remain and eventually ask it to vote,” said a senior RSS leader from Coimbatore.

“The timetable has accelerated. Whether the movement has accelerated with it remains the key question,” he added.