A stampede that left his followers dead, a movie release stalled, personal life questioned, and many more hurdles did not deter actor Vijay’s supporters from backing him for the top seat of Tamil Nadu.
With TVK leading in 108 seats as of 1 pm, with ADMK in second spot with 58 seats, Vijay’s new front is set to form the government in Tamil Nadu in an election that has turned out to be one largely driven by personalities.
With this, Vijay has replicated what MG Ramachandran did in 1971, when he swept the polls.
Who is Joseph Vijay?
Hailing from a film family, Vijay’s father, S. A. Chandrasekhar, is a film director and his mother, Shoba Chandrasekhar, is a playback singer and vocalist.
In a film career spanning over three decades, Vijay has acted in over 65 films and is amongst the highest paid actors in India.Referred to as “Thalapathy”, he has a significant fan following, and his movies often open with huge fan fare on day 1.
While his initial set of movies only did moderately well, Vijay’s career took off in 2010’s with a slew of commercially successful films making him a mass hero.
In early 2024, Vijay announced his retirement from films and said he will be entering politics with the launch of his new political party Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam.
Despite feelers from Congress and other backroom talks with other parties in the State, TVK and Vijay resisted alliances and decided to go solo in the 2026 polls.
Political observers say that this confidence of the party to go alone appealed to his supporters and pushed them to back him.
We are confident that public anger and disillusionment against the Dravidian parties will translate into a decisive electoral mandate for us, TVK’s election campaign general secretary Aadhav Arjuna, told businessline in an interview during the campaign in April.
He asserted that a leadership vacuum after J Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi, combined with voters’ grievances over governance, law and order, and rising costs, has created an opening for their charismatic leader, actor Vijay, to disrupt Tamil Nadu’s political order.
The next-generation and women have perhaps spoken and taken their pick, a senior political watcher in TN said. Now it is to seen if change works out well for TN, he added.
Published on May 4, 2026