A New Star Shakes Up Tamil Politics

POWER ABHORS A VACUUM and in Tamil Nadu, it is usually filled up by movie superstars. C Joseph Vijay or Thalapathy (leader), as his millions of fans term him, has got one necessary condition of it, right—that of timing. After the death of Jayalalithaa, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has floundered to a low point. It has no face to it and is riven by dissensions. In the last Assembly election, it was routed by long-term adversary, the second of the two parties that have dominated the state, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). Its leader Karunanidhi too passed away six years ago but the DMK found stability under his son Stalin, who is now the chief minister. The influence of movies can be seen in all that has just passed in this political spectrum. Jayalalithaa was a former actress. Her party was started by MG Ramachandran (MGR), a superstar, who was first associated with DMK and then broke away from it. Karunanidhi was a leading scriptwriter in Tamil movies who wrote many of MGR’s movies.

Into this traditional mix that weaves popular entertain­ment culture and politics has now come Vijay. He is, without doubt, the biggest superstar in Tamil movies and at his absolute peak. At 50, he is of an age when his movie career still has a long runway but he has decided to give it up. In politics, that age is practically youth. He announced the formation of his party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), in February this year, just as the political environment in India was heating up with the im­minent General Election. But he ignored the Lok Sabha elections, using it only to get noticed as a political force. It would have been too early to jump into the fray. His sights, even then, he announced, were on the 2026 Assembly elec­tions to the state. He was not going to get into it for the crumbs either. It was clear that he wanted to win the state, an extraordinary ambition that actually had a precedence in MGR becoming chief minister the first time his party contested. But MGR already had a history of political activism before it; in Vijay’s case, he will be going for broke starting entirely from scratch.

It was still something of a mystery what would be the ideas that his party would take to the people. This week, on October 28, in the first-ever rally of TVK in the state, Tamil Nadu finally got to hear it and it was evident that he was aiming for the space that the decimation of the AIADMK had left behind. In a speech interspersed with many of his famous dialogues, he announced himself in opposition to DMK. He spoke about a family using the Dravida model to loot the state, an allusion to the Karunanidhi clan and Stalin. He ridiculed DMK call­ing BJP’s ideology “fascism” and asked whether what DMK offered was “payasam”. He affirmed his party’s focus on social and economic sops to people. A cut-out of icons like Annadu­rai and Periyar along with BR Ambedkar towered behind in the background. He said his party did not agree with Periyar’s atheism but were all for his social reforms. In short, Vijay was offering everything under one bouquet—social justice, economic benefits, secularism, regional pride, linguistic pride, inclusiv­ity—to voters without alienating any group. To be amorphous and malleable is an advantage in Indian politics, but what he was clear about was being against both DMK and BJP, who rule at the state and Centre, respectively. Instead, he asked for allies to join him but after TVK had become the single-largest party in the state following the Assembly election and prom­ised them a share in governance.

The rally was a massive success, going by the lakhs who attended, and it is bound to shake up Tamil politics. This is unlike the experi­ence of other stars who also tested the same waters. Rajinikanth, at his prime, was perhaps even more popular as an actor and had even announced that he would get into politics but kept delaying it indefinitely until the bus had left the town in his indecision. He also however had to contend with the unavailability of a power vacuum and would have found the struggle harder to carve out his political territory. Kamal Haasan, another big star of Tamil movies, launched a party called Makkal Needhi Maiam in 2018 but despite contesting in three elections, his party has managed to never win a seat. He himself lost the seat that he was fighting on.

The main reason why Tamil superstars are able to seam­lessly get into politics is because they have fans’ associations all across the state and these get converted into party activists. The organisation already exists and it becomes just a matter of relabelling and restating the objectives of why they exist. In Haasan’s case, it just was not wide enough because he also came into the game too late. Vijay’s superstardom allows him to launch on a bigger scale, reminiscent of someone like MGR. It took its time coming. In 2009, he had launched his fans’ association in a place called Pudukottai and it ran for a local body election and got almost 60 per cent of the seats. He was even then mulling entering politics but it is only now that the conditions have presented themselves to mark a serious entry.

There will be no dearth of party workers or funds when the 2026 Assembly election comes around. The state’s voters have only seen the AIADMK and DMK as rulers for decades and a fresh face, which is already trusted and loved and offers everything that they want to hear, will have a strong appeal. Tamil people also have a good impression about the governance abilities of movie stars, something that will reflect on Vijay too. MGR, for instance, pioneered the free meals for school students that became a model for the rest of the nation. Both Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi were able administrators.

It will not be easy for him though. Politics in Tamil Nadu is also a complex calculation of caste and identities. And once he has entered active politics, there is no immunity against counterattacks any more. After his rally, one DMK minister accused him of being a C team of BJP. DMK chief Stalin’s son and political successor Udhayanidhi, who became deputy chief minister of Tamil Nadu recently, is himself a film star and was more circumspect calling Vijay a good friend and wishing him well for his party. But as the election draws near and battlelines are drawn, such bonhomie will not last. Vijay will have to increasingly speak publicly against DMK and its leaders to stake claim as the alternative in Tamil politics. The minimum that he would be expecting from the next election is to be the tipping force in its politics, but that is only if he is unable to get to the throne in the first attempt.

Kamal HaasanMGRsuperstardomTamil Nadu politicsTamilaga Vettri KazhagamVijay