Actor-turned-politician and Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam chief Vijay launched a sharp attack on the ruling DMK while addressing party workers and supporters in Vellore district. He framed the upcoming election as a ‘war against corruption’ and a direct battle between the DMK and TVK.
His speech echoed the punchy style of his film dialogues. He said anyone pointing fingers at him was pointing fingers at the people of Tamil Nadu and declared ‘Vijay is Tamil Nadu and Tamil Nadu is Vijay’. He also criticised CM MK Stalin over the Karur stampede, questioning why he was blamed if “all opponents are your friends”.
Commerce Minister and BJP’s election in-charge in Tamil Nadu, Piyush Goyal, downplayed Vijay’s impact in the polls, saying ‘film stars come and go’. Speaking at the Rising India Impact 2026, Goyal added that Kamal Hassan got less than 2% votes, while Vijayakanth couldn’t get into double digits. “He (Vijay) is a good actor, but if he has self -anointed himself as the CM…an upstart without any organisational backing is not going to be a winner,” Goyal said.
Meanwhile, the AIADMK announced its third phase of poll promises on the occasion of late party supremo J Jayalalithaa’s birth anniversary. Party General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswani proposed a ₹ 10,000 compassionate assistance for each household, if voted to power, countering DMK’s ₹ 5,000 payout for women.
The party also promised aid for unemployed graduates, higher fishing ban relief, more free electricity for weavers, and loan waivers for small urban traders.
Adding to the churn, J Jayalalithaa’s long-time aide and expelled AIADMK leader VK Sasikala unveiled her own political party in Ramanathapuram district, dubbing it as a movement for the marginalised. While the party is yet to be named, the flag features white, red, and black, colours usually associated with Dravidian politics, and the portraits of former Tamil Nadu CMs CN Annadurai, MG Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa. Sasikala’s conviction in the disproportionate assets case bars her from contesting elections until 2027.
In a big move, Jayalalithaa loyalist O Panneerselvam joined the DMK after his repeated requests to rejoin AIADMK and calls for uniting party factions were rejected.
Once handpicked by Jayalalithaa as stand-in CM,
OPS has now backed Stalin’s leadership and said the DMK will return to power. He was earlier expelled from the AIADMK following a power tussle with Edappadi Palaniswami.
His move comes days after late Captain Vijayakanth’s DMDK allied with the DMK.
A political analyst, who requested anonymity, tells CNBC-TV18 that these shifts could dent the NDA’s prospects in Tamil Nadu. He believes OPS & DMDK could erode the vote bank of Amma Makkal Munetra Kazhagam (AMMK) chief TTV Dhinakaran, who joined the NDA recently.
Analyst Hareesh Mohamed Ibrahim adds that OPS retains influence in southern constituencies such as Theni, Periyakulam, and Andipatti, while the DMDK could draw votes from Salem, Krishnagiri, and Dharmapuri.
Dhinakaran and Sasikala are also likely to depend on southern support, but Ibrahim believes OPS may have the edge. Unless Sasikala joins the BJP-led alliance, she could also fragment the AIADMK’s voter base, weakening the NDA further.
The aforementioned analyst also claims NDA may not want to unite the AIADMK factions because it is more keen on ‘forming an NDA govt with BJP leaders’, a strategy he alleges was used to weaken Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. AIADMK’s vote share has gone down over the past few years. From over 41% in the 2016 assembly polls under Jayalalithaa to less than 34% in the 2021 state election and nearly 21% in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
DMK’s vote share in 2016 stood at 32%, rising to 38% in 2021 and then at 27% in 2024. DMK clinched 133 seats in 2021 as against 89 in 2016, while AIADMK won 66 seats in 2021 in comparison to 134 in 2016.
The analyst further suggests Congress also stands to lose as DMK may reconsider its alliance if the Congress aligns with newcomer Vijay. The DMK can field OPS backers and DMDK candidates from seats contested by Congress previously. However, Ibrahim disagrees, saying Congress and DMK’s alliance is nearly two decades old and Stalin is the only INDIA bloc leader who backed Rahul Gandhi as a PM candidate.
The musical chairs, broken bonds, potshots and everything that transpired in the politics of Tamil Nadu this week can be summed up in a dialogue from a movie (Gentleman 1993): “Arasiyal la idellam sadaranam pa” (All this is common in politics).
Will everything that unfolded help all the parties associated in the events? People of Tamil Nadu will decide this in May, but until then as Shah Rukh Khan said in Chennai Express (2013), “Don’t underestimate the power of a common man”.
