Chennai: Six months after he promised to usher in a “fundamental political change” in Tamil Nadu, popular actor Vijay on Thursday launched the official flag of his party, Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam, dropping ample hints that the party would subscribe to the Dravidian ideology with Tamil pride as the locus.
The red-yellow-green-blue flag sports vaagai flower (syrissa or albizza odaritissma) in the middle with two elephants on either side, signifying victory and war strength respectively with the party anthem looking like a battle cry for the 2026 assembly elections, which will be the debutant poll for both the actor and his party.
Clad in a white shirt and a beige-colour trouser, Vijay unfurled the flag at TVK headquarters in Panayur on the scenic East Coast Road at an event attended by his party functionaries and his parents, veteran film director S A Chandrasekar and Shobha Chandrasekar.
He also administered a pledge to his cadres to uphold the principles of “equality” for all living beings, while saluting “warriors” who fought tirelessly for the rights of Tamils over centuries.
“There is a backstory to why we featured the vaagai flower and elephants in the flag. I will reveal it on the D-Day,” Vijay said as the crowd went into raptures, a veiled reference to the party’s first rally being planned in the last week of September.
Sources close to Vijay explained that vaagai flower, which has found rich mention in the Sangam Literature, represents victory, and the elephants signify war strength. “Victory in the battle (election) is what we are looking at and that is what is depicted in the flag. The party’s name itself carries the word victory (vetri) in it,” a source told DH.
Vaagai is considered to be one of the oldest trees of the Tamil homeland with the Sangam Literature saying that slain warriors of the land then were honoured with vaagai flowers. However, the flag ran into a controversy after the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) objected to the presence of elephant, its symbol in the flag.
The anthem titled Tamizhan Kodi Parakuthu…Thalaivan Yugam Porakuthu (Tamil flag flies high…A leader’s time has arrived) makes things explicit as they feature images of Dravidian stalwarts C N Annadurai and M G Ramachandran.
Borrowing the famous lines of the 1950s moondreluthil en moochirukkum (my breath lives in three letters) sung by MGR in his movies that alluded to the DMK, the anthem says time is up once again for the “three-letter word” to ring in Tamil Nadu.
“The three-letter word could be TVK or Vijay (in Tamil),” another source said, adding that the effort was to create a cult image for Vijay like MGR, M Karunanidhi, and J Jayalalithaa, who ruled the state like political colossuses for decades together.
Vijay’s party will subscribe to the modern version of Dravidian ideology that will also encompass Tamil pride and nationalism. “Majority of Tamils are still rooted to the Dravidian ideology and Vijay will take that route to reach out to the people. He will, through his tours and speeches, show how different he will be from the existing Dravidian parties,” the source added.
Vijay 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 about 75 per cent of the vote share is controlled by DMK, AIADMK, the Dravidian majors who have been ruling the state alternatively since 1967, and their alliance partners.
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.