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If Vijay, whose ability to draw eyeballs and drive a message is clear now, joins the NDA fold, the BJP should be congratulating itself
A marred campaign, organisational crisis, and under attack from all sides, Vijay appears to be hunkering down to face it alone. (PTI)
Actor Vijay’s defining trait has been his aloofness and reticence. Multiple accounts through the years from co-stars, his family, and many a time from himself, reiterate how he is a man of few words and how careful he has been in extending his trust circle.
The politician Vijay appears to be an extension of this personality, and in the aftermath of a giant tragedy that fell upon Tamil Nadu, his party and the manner of their response have emerged as a key talking point.
Forty-one people died in the ill-fated public rally of the Thamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam in Velusamypuram, Karur. Several of them were children.
While the tragic proportions of this event and its non-occurrence in the history of Indian political rallies smeared Vijay and marred his campaign, TVK’s response has also been novel—a short video from the party president expressing grief and a direct message to the chief minister to leave his party men alone and go after him instead.
Vijay’s immediate lieutenants are on the run, facing heat over the FIRs filed over the incident. He is expressing condolences on video calls to the families of the bereaved, even as a letter has been sent to the state DGP seeking permission to visit families.
Alone and friendless. That’s one way to describe actor-turned-politician Vijay’s political status in the run-up to the Tamil Nadu state elections of 2026. That is possibly a result of his messaging strategy cultivated over the last year: BJP as the ‘ideological’ enemy and DMK as the ‘political’ enemy. In his most recent rallies, he called the NDA ‘incongruent’.
The BJP has always sought wider alliances in Tamil Nadu. An example is the multi-party non-Dravidian alliance they stitched together in the 2014 General Elections, which, however, Jayalalithaa swept. In the forthcoming elections too, the more the merrier. If Vijay, whose ability to draw eyeballs and drive a message is clear now, joins the NDA fold, the BJP should be congratulating itself. For, its sole enemy has been the DMK.
On the other hand, Edappadi Palaniswami, with more at stake, would want his party to gain prominence on several fronts: seats, chief ministerial candidate and so on.
A BJP-ADMK-TVK alliance is firmly in the space of speculation now, but it cannot be ruled out—given that the DMK is appearing a solidly put together alliance of cohesive partners. Any sane politician would want to array equal strength before going into the hustings.
The question thus emerges: Will Vijay clasp hands with those he has criticised not too long ago? It can be assumed that the question has been considered at the TVK, but a more pressing inference would then be: No matter how big a star you are, Dravidian politics will find you and fold you.
Poornima Murali, Senior Special Correspondent at CNN-News18, has reported for over a decade on civic and political issues in Tamil Nadu. She has been helming the Chennai bureau for the channel for years now. A …Read More
Poornima Murali, Senior Special Correspondent at CNN-News18, has reported for over a decade on civic and political issues in Tamil Nadu. She has been helming the Chennai bureau for the channel for years now. A … Read More
October 09, 2025, 12:48 IST
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