Former Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai, at the India Today Roundtable, spoke about his decision to quit the party and launch his grassroots movement, ‘We the Leaders’. He said the BJP’s decision-making had become excessively Delhi-centric and criticised the concentration of major national projects in Gujarat. Turning to Tamil Nadu’s political landscape, Annamalai described the first 100 days of Chief Minister Vijay’s TVK government as a “fresh breath” in state politics and praised its anti-corruption stance, while saying the administration was yet to demonstrate a clear long-term vision. He said ‘We the Leaders’ aims to build a base of 50 lakh volunteers before evolving into a political party, with a focus on grassroots activism and social work rather than conventional electoral spending. Annamalai also claimed that traditional Dravidian parties such as the DMK and AIADMK had no long-term future unless they underwent significant “internal re-engineering” and moved away from dynastic politics.
