Why did the people of Tamil Nadu choose Vijay?

Following the declaration of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election results, actor Vijay has become the Chief Minister. It would be fair to say that Vijay’s TVK, which won 108 seats, has delivered a major shock to both the DMK and AIADMK, parties that were confident of their own victory. But more than anyone else, the result might have shocked Vijay himself. Even he would not have expected the people of Tamil Nadu to place such overwhelming trust in his party.

Debates are underway, with various explanations being offered for Vijay’s victory. Media outlets, social media pages, and YouTube channels aligned with the DMK have been pushing the narrative that the people of Tamil Nadu were swayed by Vijay’s on-screen image as a hero. Under the pretext of analyzing the reasons for their defeat, they argue: “It was a mistake to view Tamil Nadu as a politically progressive state. Just as people in North India voted for the BJP by looking at Modi’s face, people here have voted for the TVK by looking at Vijay’s face.”

A close look at the election results suggests that many people cast their votes without even considering who the candidates in their constituencies were and voted even in areas where Vijay never appeared for campaigning. Edappadi Palaniswami’s AIADMK, which began campaigning well before the election announcement and personally canvassed across hundreds of constituencies, lost its deposit in 101 seats. The DMK, which campaigned with similar intensity across the state, also suffered a crushing defeat.

Vijay, on the other hand, barely stepped out to campaign and spent less than 15 days on the campaign trail in total. Yet, the people overwhelmingly extended their support to him.

Parties such as the DMK and AIADMK possess the kind of organisational machinery required to fight elections effectively. The DMK, for instance, has the structural strength to appoint 15 agents for every polling booth and coordinate them through mobile applications to ensure votes are mobilised in its favour.

In contrast, the TVK entered the election without even proper booth agents or an established party structure. During the campaign, some of its candidates were so unfamiliar with their own constituencies that they ended up canvassing in neighboring ones without even knowing their constituency boundaries. Yet, despite all this, the people voted for the TVK.

Unable to come to terms with all this, DMK supporters have begun lashing out at the public, saying: “People voted for Vijay merely because of his hero image. They elected him simply because he dances well and acts well.” They further claim that “Vijay never directly met the people; instead, he performed before them through social media. Under the banner of ‘Virtual Warriors,’ he hired paid workers and used his IT wing to mislead the public. He even encouraged young children to pressure their parents into voting for him. The people ultimately fell for all this and elected Vijay.”

They accuse the people of Tamil Nadu of betraying the DMK — a party which, according to them, introduced numerous welfare schemes over the past five years and turned Tamil Nadu into one of the leading states in the country. They even go so far as to curse that the people of Tamil Nadu will soon have to pay the price for this betrayal.

While this is one side of the argument, those praising Vijay are pushing an entirely different narrative:

“This victory is the result of our leader’s ‘hard work.’ The people have supported Vijay because he gave up ‘everything’ for them. Vijay has broken every strategy devised against him by all the major parties — the DMK, AIADMK, and BJP. From the moment actor Vijay launched the TVK, he carefully planned every move with the motto of winning this election. No matter how many obstacles were created by the ruling parties at the Centre and in the state, Vijay fought with determination to overcome them and emerge victorious. This victory is the reward for that political struggle.”

It is not too difficult to see that the reasons put forward by Vijay’s supporters for his success are entirely absurd. Since the day he launched his party, Vijay has not spoken about public issues. Vijay is someone who stubbornly insists, ‘I will not campaign after six in the evening; I will not meet the people.’ When the tragic stampede in Karur took 41 lives, he cowardly stayed in his home without facing the public eye for a week. He has also remained silent on every major issue affecting Tamil Nadu, be it serial honour killings, caste-based violences, or the Tirupparankundram controversy orchestrated by the saffron fascist groups. And that’s not all – Vijay did not even dare to speak out when the release of his own film, Jananayagan was blocked. No one would seriously believe the claim that such a person “shattered every single strategy collectively devised by parties such as the DMK, AIADMK, and BJP”.

However, all these weaknesses of Vijay are already out in the open. So why did people still vote for him? As DMK supporters argue, there is certainly a section of voters who backed him only because of his hero image. But that is only a small section.

When one considers the sheer number of constituencies won, especially the fact that several star candidates, including DMK leader M.K. Stalin, lost to relatively unknown TVK candidates, there must clearly be reasons behind Vijay’s victory that go beyond his cinematic image.

The DMK centred its entire campaign around its welfare schemes. They claim that their tenure had improved the lives of the people of Tamil Nadu. But people clearly know that this is not the ground reality. All this chest-thumping about “development, development” amounts to nothing more than statistics on paper.

They say Tamil Nadu is “a leader in education,” yet the privatization of education has forced people into lifelong debt just to educate their children. After collecting lakhs of rupees in fees from students, they hand out a mere thousand rupees a month and then boast about supporting education.

In Tamil Nadu, nearly 80 percent of families are unable to cope with sudden medical expenses. If someone in a family falls ill, their entire savings are wiped out, forcing them into debt as healthcare costs continue to rise. There is virtually no limit to the exorbitant fees charged by private hospitals. Unable to afford those costs and left with no other option, people are forced to depend on government hospitals, many of which are in a pathetic condition.

They boast about having attracted foreign investments worth thousands of crores  creating employment opportunities for the people. But the vast majority of Tamil Nadu’s youth continue to work as contract labourers for meagre wages.

The newly emerged Gig jobs created by companies such as Swiggy, Zomato, and Ola may provide employment opportunities for young workers, but the income they earn is inadequate and not enough to support a family. This is the very reason why many families do not consider gig workers as suitable marriage partners. 

With the rising cost of living, education fees, and medical expenses, many young people find themselves in a situation where they can survive only by working more than one job. Their lives are reduced to contract work during the day and gig work at night.

The condition of small and micro-business owners is even worse. As though the burden of paying loan interest and workers’ wages were not enough, annual hikes in electricity tariffs have pushed many of them to the brink of suicide. Most small and micro-entrepreneurs have reached a point where, if given the chance, they would shut down their businesses and walk away from everything.

All these are the consequences of the new economic policies of liberalization, privatization and globalization (LPG) implemented over the past thirty years by every party that governed us — the Congress, BJP, AIADMK, and DMK alike. Yet these very outcomes are presented as achievements while seeking votes from the people.

People want this situation to change. Yet, they do not know how to change it, and there is no one to show a clear path forward. Political institutions that once spoke about the liberation of the people have today become ineffective. Trade unions that once fought for workers’ rights have degenerated into brokers that merely bargain over wage increases. The pseudo-communists of the CPI and CPM are among the primary reasons for the decline of the trade union movement.

The pseudo-communists, who claimed to be fighting for the people, have spent all these years doing nothing but shielding the DMK’s corruption. Even when the DMK government unleashed harsh repression against workers in a series of protests such as the Samsung workers’ protest, the sanitation workers’ protest, and the middle school teachers’ protest. These pseudo-communists did not stand in with the people. Instead, they stood firmly with the ruling class DMK.

While the trade union movement was systematically disengaged in this manner, the student movement was virtually wiped out. In the name of implementing the recommendations of the Lyngdoh Committee, a series of repressive measures were introduced, ranging from banning political organizations from entering college campuses to discontinuing student union elections. Political campaigning among students and efforts to mobilize them were effectively declared illegal. As a result, every attempt to politicize students was crushed at its very inception.

At the same time, a deeply individualistic mindset was structurally promoted among students: “Why do students need politics? Focus on your studies and take care of your family.”

In a situation where there are no institutions left to politically mobilize the people, even the possibility of thinking about alternatives, let alone choosing one, has steadily disappeared. As a result, the people of Tamil Nadu have been pushed into a state where they wait in desperation, asking themselves, “Will no one rescue us from these hardships? Will no one come to save us?”

They have realized that they are being repeatedly deceived by placing their trust, again and again, in parties such as the DMK and AIADMK. Every day, they watch with their own eyes as even an ordinary ward councillor from these parties becomes the owner of wealth worth hundreds of crores within just a few years.

People have realized that politicians have looted thousands of crores through road contract frauds, river sand mining, stealing mineral resources such as granite. After all these they throw a mere thousand rupees a month back at the public, which is nowhere near enough to survive the relentless rise in the cost of living.

At the same time, people do not know how to escape from this situation or whom they can trust. They have been waiting for someone who could resolve their hardships and offer them a way out of this suffering. It is this collective yearning that we are witnessing today that is manifested in the results of the 2026 Assembly elections.

But why did people consider Vijay as an alternative? None of his election promises offered concrete solutions to the problems faced by the people. He merely copied the election promises of the DMK and AIADMK, repeating the same assurances: “I will give monthly cash assistance,” “I will provide free gas cylinders.” Even so, why did people choose Vijay?

If people were simply looking for a change, then why did they not support Seeman? Why did they not vote for the Makkal Nala Kootani in the 2016 elections? Why did they not vote for Kamal Haasan?

This is precisely where the media spotlight cast upon actor Vijay comes into play. A level of media attention that was denied to Seeman, Kamal Haasan, and the Makkal Nala Kootani was instead given to actor Vijay. It was the magazine Ananda Vikatan that provided Vijay with his first political platform. From that day to this, the media has consistently portrayed Vijay as a major political force.

The media gave Vijay’s election campaigns top priority. They broadcasted everything live, from the moment he woke up and brushed his teeth to the moment he left for his campaign. Instead of exposing Vijay, who had been hiding in his home after the Karur incident, all the media houses camped outside his doorstep, waiting for a glimpse of him. Seeman and Kamal Haasan, who positioned themselves as alternative political forces, did not receive even one in a hundredth of the media attention given to Vijay. In the end, the media successfully projected Vijay to the people of Tamil Nadu as a “saviour who has come to redeem the masses.”

The ruling class has effectively tied the hands of the people of Tamil Nadu, leaving them unable to struggle on their own to change their lives as their conditions continue to decline day by day. In such a situation, it is not surprising that people who are not politically mobilised begin to see a sudden newcomer as a saviour who will rescue them. Actor Vijay’s existing star image, along with the added media support, has helped reinforce this perception. This is the reason why the people of Tamil Nadu have chosen Actor Vijay

Vijay’s success cannot be reduced to the idea that people simply fell for a “hero image.” Rather, it should be seen as a political expression of the long-standing socio-economic frustration that has been building up in Tamil Nadu for decades.

If one were to ask whether actor Vijay will fulfil people’s expectations, the answer can only be a clear “no.” How can one believe that a man who does not even fight for his own interests will fight against privatization, liberalization, and globalization on behalf of the public? Vijay is a narcissist who enjoys manipulating his fans who treat him like a god. He exploits their devotion by inflating movie ticket prices to thousands and selling them in black. He feeds off their admiration while never showing any real concern for improving people’s lives. As long as people remain unpoliticized, as long as they don’t understand what a real alternative looks like, and as long as they do not have faith in such an alternative, figures like Vijay will keep emerging.