Hours after former Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai resigned announcing the formation of a new outfit, several other party leaders followed suit, triggering a crisis for the state unit.Besides the dissent it sparked in the Tamil Nadu BJP organisation, Annamalai’s move to start a new movement, Annamalai Makkal Iyakkam (AMI), attracted mass support, garnering over 7 lakh followers within hours of the former IPS officer’s announcement to go it alone.Earlier today, Annamalai quit the saffron party and said “national parties never spoke the language understood by the state people”. BJP president Nitin Nabin accepted Annamalai’s resignation, ending days of speculation.In his resignation letter posted on X, Annamalai underlined that despite being in the BJP for the past six years, he had not sacrificed his “Tamil identity”. He said he felt his views did not align with that of the central leadership. He also said he did not want to burden the top leadership any further with his thoughts on the way forward for a growth-oriented and culturally rooted politics in Tamil Nadu.“At this point, I would recall the multiple conversations with the top leadership and the disagreements I have expressed over the last 18 months. After my conversations with our senior leadership, I have come to the conclusion that our views don’t align regarding Tamil Nadu,” he said.The IPS officer-turned-politician said national parties never spoke the language that people in Tamil Nadu understood. Annamalai had been camping in Delhi for the last couple of days, where he held a series of meetings with Nabin, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national organisational general secretary BL Santhosh to convey his decision to quit the party.Popular as ‘Singham’ for tough policing as an IPS officer in Karnataka, Annamalai quit the service in 2019 and launched ‘We The Leaders Foundation’. He joined the BJP in 2020 and within a year, he was made the state president.Most of the volunteers of his AMI movement would likely be from his outfit, he said in a video message moments after tendering his resignation. The aim of the movement was to eventually launch a political party, and that he wished to contest the 2031 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, he said. “The time has arrived to usher in common man politics over cult politics,” he said.Annamalai said politics did not belong to a single family. “We will break the concept of permanent leaders, MPs and MLAs. We encourage all segments of society to participate in the political movement. Furthermore, more technocrats will be encouraged to join the party,” he said.The Tamil leader revealed that he had informed the saffron brigade of his decision to quit earlier. “I told the party on December 4 last year that I was going to resign. The party asked me to finish the elections and then leave,” he said.Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu BJP president Nainar Nagenthran said the party had not lost much in Annamalai’s resignation. “There is no loss for the party. The BJP is the biggest party in the world,” he said.