Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar – the 51-year-old Tamil cinema superstar known to fans worldwide as Vijay, or simply as “Thalapathy” (Commander) – has delivered the most seismic electoral debut in Tamil Nadu‘s modern history.
His Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam won 108 seats in Monday’s Assembly election count to emerge as the southern Indian state’s single largest party. On Tuesday, Vijay wrote to Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar staking formal claim to form the government – ending a 59-year lock on power shared exclusively between the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
With the DMK securing 59 seats and the AIADMK 47, Vijay’s party outpolled both Dravidian giants on its very first attempt at the ballot box, claiming approximately 35% of the popular vote. TVK fell 10 seats short of the 118 required for an outright majority in the 234-member Assembly, producing a hung house and sending coalition arithmetic into immediate motion. The arithmetic suggests that TVK may not need an elaborate coalition. Support from a handful of smaller parties could be enough to push it past the 118-seat mark.
The results come after April 23 polling across all 234 constituencies recorded a turnout of 85.1% — the highest ever for a Tamil Nadu assembly election. Vijay himself contested from two seats and won both: Perambur in North Chennai by a margin of over 38,000 votes, and Tiruchirappalli East by 27,216 votes. Under Indian law, he will be required to vacate one of the two constituencies within a stipulated period.
