Salem, Vijay’s Next Rendezvous?

Chennai: Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) president Vijay wants to hold his next outreach programme with his supporters on December 30 at Salem following the success of his meeting at Erode that went off without any hitch on Thursday and gave him an opportunity to reiterate his stand that in the 2026 Assembly elections the contest will be between his party and the ruling DMK only.

Petitions seeking permission for holding the meeting at an open ground in Salem with Vijay addressing the crowd from atop his customized bus were sent to the authorities and police by TVK’s functionaries as they want to continue the series of campaign meetings across the State that were planned earlier but had to be stopped following the stampede at Karur on September 27.

Three venues in Salem were reportedly mentioned in the application by the TVK that had earlier sought permission for a meeting in Salem on December 4 but did not manage to get the required nod from the authorities as they were then waiting for the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for political rallies to be framed.

Despite the denial of permission in Salem, the party went ahead with the meeting at Erode after former AIADMK leader K A Sengottaiyan joined the party as a key honcho and also organized the event at his turf. Sengottaiyan, who was instrumental in making the Erode event of TVK a success, also presented a scepter to Vijay on stage.

The scepter, known in Tamil as Sengol, is viewed as a symbol of power and authority and its presentation in public to various leaders had been celebrated as a harbinger of political triumph.

So, now the TVK that had temporarily suspended its public events after the Karur tragedy is all set to go gung ho on its campaign once again without the roadshows and meetings at congested market places but organizing public meetings in open grounds as they did in Erode.

In between the Karur stampede and the Erode meeting, the party organized a closed door meeting at a private college auditorium in Kanchipuram districts and also a meeting in Puducherry restricting entry to select invitees and issuing them entry passes with QR code.

Now the Erode event has opened the floodgates for resuming the public meetings, which the party initially wanted to hold only on Saturdays in all the districts and covering the entire State before the notification of elections.