The victory of cinema superstar C. Joseph Vijay in the recent State Assembly election marks a watershed moment for politics in Tamil Nadu. Breaking with nearly 60 years of voting for one of only two major Dravidian parties is not just a signal of dissatisfaction but also an abiding quest for enlightened State leadership that recognises the contours of Tamil exceptionalism, and delivers the quality of governance required to meet that imperative.

At the heart of Mr. Vijay’s emphatic win, which resulted in his party, the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), cornering 108 out of the 234 seats in the Assembly, lies a disenchantment with the smug complacence of rule by both the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and, for a decade until 2021, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). Between them, the DMK and the AIADMK have alternated periodically in occupying power in Chennai to deliver on the promises of their Dravidian forebears C.N. Annadurai and Periyar E.V. Ramaswamy, which includes values such as state autonomy, freedom from Hindi imposition and other diktats of a distant New Delhi, and welfare policies including the noon-meal scheme and direct transfers to vulnerable groups.

It would be remiss not to mention that this noble project of upliftment of the common man in the State was built on the dubious substructure of a shadow economy encompassing institutionalised corruption and grand larceny on an eyewatering scale. That a former late Chief Minister of the State owned sprawling properties in central London, and that even top global corporations seeking industrial permits admit to being asked for sizeable cash bribes to speed up their licence issues, reveals the institutionalised nature of this rent-seeking model.

Would it then be improper to suggest that the TVK’s surprise win was the result of an electorate growing weary of this Faustian bargain struck with the ruling powers, where they gave with one hand and took with the other?

Yet, there is more to be explained. Why at this moment in time has the public rejected the proven track records of two parties that, in the nearly six decades since they overthrew the Congress and dominated the State, have by and large managed to keep Tamil Nadu on a steady growth path while working towards fulfilling the Dravidian political vision?

Dissecting the victory

There could be several possible factors that might explain the expectation-defying 34.92% vote share that the TVK garnered across virtually every region of the State and likely across most demographic cohorts, especially among the youth, and women of all ages and backgrounds.

Firstly, Mr. Vijay presented the over 56 million electors of Tamil Nadu with a unique campaign style, modelled on viral social media marketing strategies. In doing so, he broke with the convention of old-school “offline” campaigning techniques including but not limited to widespread rallies across the State. Mr. Vijay appeared to eschew such public interactions in favour of online messaging on social media platforms such as Instagram, to the point where he courted controversy when, during one of his last campaign speeches, he exhorted young children to compel their parents to vote for the TVK’s ‘whistle’ symbol.

Second, an air of vulnerability and an unspoken sense of victimhood appeared to build up around Mr. Vijay as he pleaded innocence for the deadly stampede at the TVK rally in Karur in September 2025, in which at least 41 people died and many more were injured. This is despite the fact that the actor remained silent for three days following the incident, emerging later from his isolation without an apology for mismanaging a major public event organised by his party, and instead making veiled references to a conspiracy by the DMK-led government. The delay in the release of his film Jana Nayagan was similarly attributed to sinister forces seeking to sabotage Mr. Vijay’s commercial prospects and thus undermine his public persona. Such developments appeared to have created momentum for a burgeoning sense of sympathy and outright anger that an outsider to the Dravidian movement framework could be so viciously attacked by incumbent powers.

While these developments certainly give credence to the view that the TVK surge in the election was rooted in a savvy, Gen-Z-driven, social media virality strategy and a strong sentiment of righting an injustice meted out to a political newcomer, it is also important to look at the broader context of tectonic shifts in the political and economic spheres that resulted in the disenchantment with the Dravidian model.

Disillusionment and doubt

The first key factor that might have resulted in voters rejecting the solutions presented by the DMK and the AIADMK for the unprecedented flux in the job market due to technological and economic shocks is hubris. Towards the last few years of each of their terms in office, the public would not have been wrong to be frustrated with the unspoken but implied government view that no other model besides that old combination of mass welfare policies and moderate economic growth driven by a reasonably efficient bureaucracy, with the State exchequers looted by political rent-seekers, was the only path forward for progress.

Combine this with the fact that the DMK appeared to be getting ever more deeply mired in dynastic nepotism, with resentment building around the handover of the reins of power to former Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s son, Udhayanidhi, and the AIADMK chief Edappadi K. Palaniswami’s continued struggle to keep factional infighting from attenuating the cohesive core of his party’s cadre. 

A second critical concern of the electors of the State is that the gradual inroads made by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) into Tamil Nadu may be transforming the balance of power therein and eroding the State’s rich tradition of rationalism, anti-ritualism, rejection of upper caste dominance, and opposition to any single religion enjoying disproportionate support from the government. The results for the alliance between the AIADMK and the BJP placed it in third position overall with respectively 47 and one seat for the two parties. This indicates a split in voter preferences on the overall acceptability of the BJP in the State. In this context, the surge towards the TVK might also reflect frustration with the Dravidian majors as they have been unable to come up with a robust strategy to halt the march of the BJP and its ground-level support base, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Finally, we may be witnessing the dawn of a new era for Dravidian politics as a historical social movement, as the younger generations of voters are likely one step removed from the traditional founding values and ideals of Periyar and Annadurai. Instead, they are by turn gig workers, nomadic factory floor contract operators, apprentices in micro, small and medium enterprises, and entry-level service sector representatives seeking to build a career at a complex moment in Tamil Nadu’s economic evolution. They respond more to a sharply witty Instagram post than a party manifesto published on the official website.

For these voters, and for those swamped by doubts on the capacity of the DMK and the AIADMK to continue to deliver good governance in an era of fundamental socio-economic transformation, Mr. Vijay’s TVK spells promise. Now it remains to be seen whether they will manage to muster the numbers to actually form a government, and if they do, whether the Cabinet that Mr. Vijay assembles and the bureaucratic machinery that has historically excelled in rolling out essential policies for the people will help him make good on the many promises he made.