Tamil actor Vijay, fondly called ‘Thalapathy’ Vijay by his fans, is all set to announce his political goals on Sunday. The actor, who announced his political plunge recently and launched his party Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, will conduct his first conference at Vikravandi in Tamil Nadu today.
While it awaits to be seen what impact the actor would make in Tamil Nadu politics, the actor had already had a taste of electoral victory once, sans any party, during the 2021 Tamil Nadu rural body polls.
It was a time when Tamil Nadu's political scene was quite complex following the demise of former chief minister and AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa. In October 2021, the newly formed Dradvida Munnetra Kazhagam government conducted long-pending rural local body polls and won big in the elections. The ruling DMK won in majority of seats in the election conducted to fill 27,003 posts in rural local bodies. Newly formed Kamal Hassan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam and Tamil nationalist party Naam Tamilar Katchi drew a blank in the polls. However, what surprised everyone was the victory of over 110 members of Vijay’s fans cum welfare association, All Indian Thalapathy Vijay Makkal Iyakkam, who contested the polls as independents.
Members of actor Vijay’s All Indian Thalapathy Vijay Makkal Iyakkam contested from 169 rural local body seats in Kanchipuram, Chengalpattu, Kallakurichi, Villupuram, Ranipet, Tirupattur, Tenkasi and Tirunelveli in the election. And to everyone’s surprise, sans any formal political party, a formal announcement or campaigning from the actor, the actor’s fans won close to 120 seats.
Only a few months ahead of this poll, in November 2020, the actor opposed his father and film director S.A. Chandrashekar’s move to formally register a party in Vijay’s name with the Election Commission. The actor categorically disassociated from his father’s political move and advised his fans to stay away from his father’s party.
Vijay’s close aide and TVK’s general secretary N. Anand, popularly known as ‘Bussy’ Anand, was president of the welfare association. The contestants just used flags with the actor’s face during the campaigning for polls. Actor Vijay met with the elected members later and advised them to work for the welfare of the people. Later, during the urban body polls in 2022, one of the association's candidate won to Pudukottai Municipality.