Actor-turned-politician Vijay, who launched the TVK earlier this year, will debut in the 2026 assembly elections, saying that he is confident of winning with a majority.
He has kept the party’s doors open for allies and power sharing.
“2026 will be a new year for politics,” Vijay said to a massive crowd who gathered in the Villupuram district in Tamil Nadu.
“We have two enemies,” Vijay said without taking names of political parties. He referred to the DMK as his political enemy and the BJP as his ideological enemy promising to fight corruption and communalism. “We have come with a puuca (meaning tight in Tamil slang) plan in public interest with a power-packed crowd,” Vijay said. “This is a mass gathering, which has come not for cash, but for a good cause.”
Vijay’s colloquial speech, which was a mix of Tamil peppered with English, aimed at the first-time and young voters, including women, who also form a major clutch of the 50-year-old actor’s fan base.
“I have not come as extra luggage,” Vijay said in response to criticism of his entry in the political arena, assuring people of change.
“We have to understand the new generation and work accordingly,” he said, adding that like science and technology, politics too should change. He promised to practise political decency and not engage in mudslinging for not naming the DMK and BJP.
TVK’s ideology will be secularism and social justice and the party’s aim is to provide everything for everyone, including education, healthcare, water and opportunities, Vijay said.
Speaking from the podium while walking around with a hand-held mic, Vijay took to a paper while reading out the names of Tamil Nadu’s stalwarts, from whom TVK is taking inspiration.
He named Dravidian stalwarts EV Ramaswamy (revered as Periyar) and DMK founder CN Annadurai, but said TVK will stay away from the former’s anti-god politics and stick to the latter’s idea that there is only one God.
Besides them, BR Ambedkar and former Congress chief minister K Kamarajar are the TVK’s ideological leaders. Vijay said that his party is the first to have women leaders to the list naming freedom fighters Rani Velu Nachiyar and Anjalai Ammal.
“We will work for the protection of women, children and senior citizens,” he said.
Vijay also promised to retain Tamil Nadu’s two-language policy of English and Tamil, establish a corruption-free and transparent administration, eradicate untouchability and discrimination based on religion, caste, language, gender identity, and economic status, increase reservation for women from 33% to 50%, back the caste census and abolish NEET and the governor’s post.
He blamed the ruling government for not fulfilling such policies.
“This anti-people government brand themselves as ‘Dravidian model’,” Vijay said. “They always keep talking about fascism…This is a group that wears a mask and cheats people and hides in all sectors. It’s not easy to identify them. And then there is another group that indulges in hate politics. They are more easily identifiable like a rogue elephant.”