Actor Vijay’s newly launched Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) has laid down the agenda for party expansion, instructing its functionaries to work hard and together, to enrol two crore members. Vijay has also called for active participation of women and first-time voters in the party. TVK has also planned to launch an exclusive mobile app for membership drive.
A consultation meeting of TVK was convened at Vijay’s Panaiyur residence, on the outskirts of Chennai, to discuss and deliberate on the party expansion plans and the agenda for membership drive. The meeting headed by TVK general secretary N. Anand informed the office bearers about Vijay’s instructions to conduct district and assembly-wise membership drive to strengthen the party at its grassroots.
“As per the advice of our party president, membership camps are to be conducted across the state; district-wise and assembly constituency-wise strengthening of the grassroot infrastructure of Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam. District and assembly constituency in-charges of the party in Tamil Nadu will also be appointed to coordinate with the women-led membership wing for carrying out the new membership drive,” Anand said in a statement. He added that Vijay will soon announce an exclusive women-led wing to spearhead the membership drive.
He also said that a state-of-the-art mobile app will be launched soon to take the membership drive forward. “District and assembly constituency in-charges along with membership wing of the party shall undertake membership drive at district, municipal corporation, municipality, block, town panchayat, village unit and ward levels across Tamil Nadu. We must endeavour to ensure that general public, including first-time and women voters, become active members of our party. The district and assembly constituency in-charges of our party are advised to collect and acquaint themselves with the latest voters list of the respective constituencies released by Election Commission of India,” Anand said.
Tamil Nadu has 6.2 crore voters. Vijay’s target of two crore membership means 32 per cent of the total vote share. The two Dravidian majors - the AIADMK and the DMK - have already enrolled close to 1.5 crore members each and have a strong infrastructure in every district, which has not been matched by any other political party in the past four decades. In fact, the two parties together enjoy close to 70 per cent of the vote share in Tamil Nadu, which has remained largely unchallenged.
There were several parties like Vaiko’s MDMK, Vijayakanth’s DMDK, actor Seeman’s Naam Tamilar Katchi - which speaks about Periyarism and follows the ideological path of social justice laid by former chief minister C.N. Annadurai – but they have not been able to capture more than 10 per cent vote share in the state.
