Vijay TVK conference: Why 'Thalapathy' remembered Congress MLA Anjalai Ammal along with Velu Nachiyar, Periyar at Vikravandi? 5 POINTS

Tamil superstar 'Thalapathy' Vijay openly criticised the BJP-RSS and the DMK during the first conference of his political party Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) at Vikravandi on Sunday. Ahead of affirming his decision to fight the 2026 Tamil Nadu assembly elections, the actor-turned politicians also revealed the ideological position of his party.

In his maiden public speech eight months after announcing the launch of TVK,  'Thalapathy' Vijay said that his party is based on secular-social justice ideologies which consider leaders like Periyar and K Kamaraj as its guiding lights. "Our guiding spirits are the great ones who lived here. We won't adopt his atheism, we aren't against anyone's beliefs. But social justice, rationalism, women empowerment, we will adopt all other ideas that Periyar propounded," DT Next quoted the actor-politician as saying.

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Vijay then went on to add Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam's allegiance to Dr BR AAmbedkar and two other iconic personalities -- Velu Nachiyar and Anjalai Ammal. "We are proudly proclaiming Ambedkar as a guiding spirit for reservation and for striving to end caste discrimination. Then braveheart Velu Nachiyar. Then comes Anjalai Ammal," he said.

Queen Velu Nachiyar of Sivaganga was among the first female rulers of India to fight the Britishers. She defeated the East India Company in a decisive battle to claim back her throne in 1780.

But what about Anjalai Ammal? Cuddalore native Anjalai Ammal was a freedom fighter who went on to become an MLA representing the Indian National Congress. Although she was active in the freedom struggle and social reformist missions of Congress in Tamil Nadu for many years, her legacy is almost unheard of outside Tamil Nadu. 

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Here are five captivating facts about Congress icon Anjalai Ammal who was honoured by Tamil superstar 'Thalapathy' Vijay during TVK's conference at Vikravandi on Sunday:

1. Born to an ordinary Cuddalore family in 1890, Anjalai Ammal received a basic education. When Mahatma Gandhi addressed a public gathering in Cuddalore on September 17, 1921, Anjalai Ammal and her husband Murugappa were among the attendees. It was a turning point in their lives, historians note, as the couple got inspired by Gandhiji's words and dedicated the next 25 to 30 years of their lives to the Congress party. It is recorded that Anjalai Ammal took part in all major struggles organised by the Congress in Tamil Nadu for more than two decades, The Hindu said in a report. 

2. In 1927, the couple and their teenage daughter Ammaponnu got arrested by the Britishers. The family travelled from Cuddalore to Madras, now Chennai, to participate in a protest to bring down the statue of Colonel Neill on the Mount Road. They were among the protestors who tried to damage the statue of the iron-fisted British official notorious for manhandling freedom fighters. Ammaponnu, Murugappa and Anjalai Ammal were sent to different prisons by the British government, reports said.

3. It is said that Ammal spent at least eight years behind bars for her political activities. Among the many times she courted arrest, there was this one time that she had to be released for a few days for delivery. As she spent her pregnant days imprisoned, Ammal named the son he delivered while out on bail ‘Jail Veeran’.

4. Incumbent DMK MLA N Ezhilan, representing Chennai's Thousand Lights constituency, is the great-grandson of Anjalai Ammal. He carries on the legacy of one of the few women to reach the State legislature in the first half of the 20th century. Ammal won on a Congress ticket in the 1937 and 1946 elections to become an MLA, The Hindu report said.

5. In 2023, the Tamil Nadu government has installed a statue of Anjalai Ammal in Cuddalore. She retired from active politics after India gained Independence and died in 1961.