DC Edit | Tragedy Lands Vijay’s Party At Crossroads In TN Politics
The party’s founder president, Tamil actor Vijay, who had been ignoring all solicitations for tie-ups from a wide range of parties, is now being wooed by various coalitions that believe joining hands with him would enhance the electoral prospects of their political outfits
Ironically, a roadside campaign meeting organised in the weavers’ town of Karur in Tamil Nadu for the 2026 Assembly elections landed the fledgling party, Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK), at a political crossroads. While the stampede that killed 41 persons and sent over 100 persons to hospitals during the meeting on September 27 should have become history by now, it is still being been written about, featured, discussed and analysed in the media and elsewhere because the party has gained lightning popularity threatening to usher changes in the political landscape of the state.
The party’s founder president, Tamil actor Vijay, who had been ignoring all solicitations for tie-ups from a wide range of parties, is now being wooed by various coalitions that believe joining hands with him would enhance the electoral prospects of their political outfits. A truth that emerged from the tragedy at Karur was that Vijay enjoyed widespread public support, particularly that of youth and women, and that he cannot be wished away in the state’s political arena anymore. Though naysayers presume that the crowds turning up for his meetings just wanted to look at a matinee idol, there is nothing to substantiate that they would not vote for him.
Tamil Nadu has a long history of people happily embracing matinee idols as political heroes and celebrating them as saviours from imagined oppression and misrule and Vijay might not be an exception. The clear indication of his image not taking a beating after the unsavoury episode that was sought to be turned against him in many ways is the interest it has evoked in the other political parties to have him on board for the elections. Apart from the BJP that pledged its backing to the TVK when it was torn to pieces in social media and by some political parties in Tamil Nadu, including the DMK, the Congress too apparently showed keenness on having talks with Vijay.
As a close ally of the DMK, not only in Tamil Nadu but also at the national level, the Congress Lok Sabha leader Rahul Gandhi calling Vijay up from South America and promising to meet him once he returned to India revealed something that was not thought about earlier. When Vijay, in every campaign meeting, including the one at Karur, and in his subsequent video address, had been singling out chief minister M.K. Stalin for a fusillade of barbs, why should Rahul Gandhi show interest in meeting him? Even the BJP, which had been identified by Vijay as an enemy, supported him openly after the disaster when public opinion turned against the TVK for mismanaging the Karur show.
AIADMK, an ally of the BJP, too, spoke in favour of Vijay when he was facing the wrath of the people for scooting Karur after the tragedy without expressing any remorse when media-persons accosted him at the airport, indicating that they too would like to have him as an ally in the electoral war against the DMK. So, even if it appears the TVK has gained the agency to pick its preferred suitor in the political wedding arena, it has landed at a crossroads and will be forced to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea when it comes to electoral allies.
