Tamil Nadu elections: Can Vijay be the next MGR?
A huge poster of actor Vijay stares down from the wall. A digital signboard flashes: 285 days, 3 hours, 43 minutes and 46 seconds, a countdown to the 2026 assembly election in
Tamil Nadu
. Scores of people sit glued to screens, fingers flying over keyboards, some others are on mobile phones trying to reach voters in remote hamlets.
The Tamizhaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) war room in Chennai is fully activated.
Membership drives, training programmes for booth agents, surveys and strengthening of its IT wing mark the priorities of TVK. Insiders say surveys show TVK is racing ahead of AIA
DMK
and closing in on DMK. While comparisons are unfair, Vijay has set his party the ambitious goal of repeating the MGR phenomenon: winning the assembly election on its own on its debut (the matinee idol-led-AIADMK won 144 of the 200 seats it contested in 1977).
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'These people,' says TVK election management general secretary Aadhav Arjuna, about the team, 'have handled more than five elections in multiple states.' He and party general secretary N Anand oversee the strategies. 'We have appointed 69,400 booth agents and their four-member teams and assigned them to every election booth in the 234 assembly constituencies,' says Aaadhav. One assembly constituency has around 275 booths with a booth assigned for about 250 families.
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Two election managers handle the war room and campaign strategy, besides analysing voter mood, and tracking issues and opponents' activities. 'It is a 24x7 job. There is no time for anything else,' says one of the two managers who don't want to be named. 'Booth agents go to every house taking the message of the party and the leader to people and listen to their problems,' he says. They project Vijay as 'Makkal virumbum mudhalvar vetpalar' (The CM candidate people yearn for).
'We've completed training sessions for 120 party district secretaries,' says Aadhav. TVK recently launched the app 'MY TVK', for digital enrolment of members; it claims to have added 2.5 crore members. 'Our leader can directly access the 2.9 lakh office bearers,' he says.
'MGR started his party not based on alliance, but on his party cadre and people. People wanted change. It is a similar scenario now. TVK's will be an honest govt, equality-based administration with women empowerment and support for minorities,' says Aadhav.
The party is gearing up for the Aug 25 'Madurai Maanadu'. 'After that, the leader outreach programme will begin. Before Dec, there will be a dramatic change in TN politics,' says Aadhav, alleging corruption under M K Stalin's regime.
Having spurned advances from AIADMK and BJP, TVK is critical of both. 'After J Jayalalithaa's death, AIADMK surrendered to
Narendra Modi
for self-interest. Cadres, supporters and people are upset.
Their only hope is Vijay, who is against family and corruption,' says Aadhav.
Vijay's political strategist Jhon Arokiasamy calls TVK the largest party in the state. 'The party will either contest all the seats on its own or, after the conference and TN tour, consider alliances,' he says. Arokiasamy says TVK is not interested in AIADMK or BJP. 'When you oppose divisive politics and corruption, you have to be against DMK and AIADMK.
And BJP is an ideological rival,' he says.
TVK believes AIADMK, having lost 10 elections since 2017, cannot defeat DMK, and hence the battle is between DMK and TVK. 'Palaniswami is not a universally accepted leader within and outside the party. And TVK is the new force,' says Arokiasamy.
During earlier interactions with AIDMK, the actor had demanded that he be projected as the CM face, and his party would contest half the seats. Party general secretary Anand says Vijay will take the final decision on alliance. 'Whatever be his decision, we will win the election, and he will be CM. Whoever accepts him as the CM candidate will be accepted in our alliance,' he says.
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