Actor Vijay.
Credit: X/@_TVK__
Chennai: Four months after its launch, popular Tamil actor Vijay’s Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) on Tuesday announced its goal was only to win the 2026 assembly polls and that the political party will not contest any election, including local body polls, until then.
In a statement, TVK general secretary N Bussy Anand said Vijay, while announcing the launch of the party on February 2, had clearly articulated the party’s political standing. 49-year-old Vijay, who is one of the highest-paid actors in the country and commands a huge fan base, will be the latest entrant into the already crowded political space in Tamil Nadu from the tinsel town.
Anand’s statement made it clear that the TVK will neither contest nor extend support to any political party in the July 10 by-elections to Vikravandi assembly constituency, which will witness a direct fight between DMK and PMK, an ally of the BJP, with principal opposition party AIADMK boycotting the elections.
“Our party chief (Vijay) has already announced that winning the 2026 assembly elections is our primary goal. He will announce the party’s ideology and programs to be implemented during the first conference of the party to be held soon. He (Vijay) will also tour the length and breadth of Tamil Nadu after the conference,” Anand added.
“Therefore, I would like to announce that TVK will not contest in any election, including the local body elections, to be held before 2026,” Anand added.
Vijay’s decision to launch a party wasn’t surprising as the actor was preparing for his political outing for the past few months by constituting various wings for his Vijay Makkal Iyakkam, his fan club. The VMI already has 25 wings and all of them were reactivated recently, while the actor also launched an IT wing and advocates wing to face the political challenge.
Vijay also joins the long list of actors who have joined politics in Tamil Nadu starting from M G Ramachandran to J Jayalalithaa to Sivaji Ganesan to Vijayakanth, and Kamal Haasan.
While the first two made it big in politics like in the silver screen, the last three couldn’t register much success, though Vijayakanth briefly altered the bipolar politics in the state. Superstar Rajinikanth didn’t enter politics citing his ill-health after promising to launch a party and contest the 2021 elections.
Vijay’s political plunge is gutsy as no actor could recreate the MGR magic in about four decades in a state where over 75 per cent of the vote share is controlled by DMK and AIADMK, the Dravidian majors who have been ruling the state alternatively since 1967.
Apart from taking on seniors like Chief Minister M K Stalin and Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami, Vijay will also fight for space with relatively young leaders such as Udhayanidhi Stalin, and BJP state chief K Annamalai.