The reel ‘Jana Nayagan’ remains in the cans. But ‘Thalapathy’ Vijay has begun presenting himself as the real ‘Jana Nayagan’, if the Vellore public meeting is any indication. Like the hero he has played in countless films, Vijay is making it about himself versus the entire machinery of the DMK.
All the different alphabet soup parties that dot the political landscape of Tamil Nadu have chosen one of the two Dravidian fronts and Vijay stands alone sans any alliance partners. With the Congress, as of now, deciding to stick with the DMK despite the Dravidian major refusing to concede its twin demands of a significant increase in number of seats to contest and share in power should the alliance return to power, the hopes of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam for a TVK-Congress tango have all but evaporated.
Vijay’s Vellore pitch on Monday was therefore a Kollywoodish interpretation of the Tamil Nadu Assembly election of 2026 – Vijay versus everyone else. It was cinematic and replete with punch dialogues.
Which makes one beg the question: Will he be an NT Rama Rao who stormed to power in 1983 within months of forming his Telugu Desam in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh or a Kamal Haasan whose Makkal Needhi Maiyam sank without a whimper in the 2021 Assembly elections, netting just 2.6 percent of the vote?
On available evidence so far, Vijay is the X-factor Tamil Nadu has not seen for a long time in its electoral politics. Even his worst critics admit that his support base cuts across the demography of the state, with women in the age bracket of 18-40 and the youth his biggest cheerleaders. Vijay is banking on the ‘Vijay’ and ‘Viji’ in every family, as he likes to christen his young supporters, to convince the elders in their families to give the TVK a chance.
Newbie political parties succeed only when there is a political vacuum. Like it did for the TDP in the 80s, when the people of Andhra Pradesh were fed up with the conveyor belt of Congress chief ministers, remote controlled from Delhi. The advantage for Vijay is that he has entered the electoral ring, 59 years after Tamil Nadu dumped the Congress and plumped for the Dravidian stock.
The TVK would bank on the fatigue with the Dravidian model of governance and politics among a section of the electorate and anti-incumbency against the MK Stalin regime, to convince voters to give Vijay a chance.
It is significant that barring a couple of salvos so far, Vijay has largely ignored the second player in the Dravidian matrix – the AIADMK. In doing so, he is trying to elevate his own stature as the real challenger. Knowing that the anti-DMK voter would vote for the party and the candidate that has a better chance of defeating Stalin’s party, Vijay’s idea is to convince that voter that the TVK has a better chance in the constituency than the NDA.
Bravado, histrionics and one-liners aside, can Vijay succeed when Vijaykanth – the other big actor who aspired to be the alternative to the Dravidian majors – could not? There is a difference. Vijaykanth contested his first assembly election in 2006, with his DMDK garnering 8.4 percent.
But the challenge for him was that Tamil Nadu politics was still bipolar, with Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa still going strong. Five years later in 2011, ‘Captain’, as Vijaykanth was called, tied up with the AIADMK. While it fetched the DMDK short-term results, winning 29 assembly seats, it resulted in Vijaykanth losing his independent stature and relevance.
Vijay is not copying Vijaykanth’s playbook. He has also come into politics in the post-Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa era. Admittedly, Stalin is a formidable leader, but the AIADMK under Edappadi Palaniswami is a pale version of the party under Amma. That explains why Vijay, punching above his weight, is openly making it Vijay vs Stalin, giving EPS the cold shoulder.
A common criticism against Vijay is that he lacks the courage to take on the BJP, despite his own farewell movie ‘Jana Nayagan’ suffering at the hands of the Censor Board. But had he made that the main talking point, he would have been accused of only being concerned about his film and not the masses of Tamil Nadu. Two, he wants to project himself as a political leader now and bemoaning the fate of his movie, would have kept him in the actor mould.
Vijay is also derisively mocked as a Work-from-Home politician and how, unlike any of the other leaders, he does not rub shoulders with the public. The fact is Vijay cannot afford another Karur. With the Tamil Nadu police imposing far more restrictions on him than any other leader, it is obvious that mingling with the public is right now a major risk. At the Vellore public meeting, by promising to visit every village after he is elected, Vijay is indirectly accusing the administration of deliberate non-cooperation.
With questionable opinion polls throwing up different numbers for Vijay, the real challenge will be two-fold. His choice of candidates and booth level management. It does not matter if the police cap the crowd at his public meetings at under 5000 because amplification by social media will more than make up for it. In a state where political parties have to pay people to attend meetings, Vijay starts with a clear advantage that he does not need to hire crowds to listen to him.
So far, TVK is having a good run, as one of the dominant voices on social media. But the real election will have to be won on the EVM, not on YouTube. After all, the Election Commission will count the votes, not views.
(Views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author.)
