Lakshmana Venkat Kuchi
Can actor Vijay be that film personality from Tamil Nadu who can be as successful a politician as say Pawan Kalyan, from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh has been of late?
He is drawing huge crowds, especially the youth from across caste and class configurations across Tamil Nadu, and for sure appears to be posing a threat to the ruling DMK in the state, which is going for a re-election next year.
Now into the run up to the assembly elections, so to speak, the DMK too has stepped up its pace of propaganda, and is coming out with an intelligent narrative building campaign depicting Tamil Nadu as akin to a developed Germany or France when it comes to economic growth and well-being of the people.
The national statistics, released by the Niti Ayog give credence to the Tamil Nadu claims on development and growth, pegging its progress at 11.4 percent growth, which is high up ahead of many other prosperous and developed states. And especially, Tamil Nadu is recording envious growth in the manufacturing sector that provides employment, and is also competing with neighbouring Karnataka and Telangana on the services sector (IT, knowledge parks and GCCs), presenting an overall prosperous picture of an advanced state.
All this goes to the credit of the DMK, which has got its narrative right, but the film hero Vijay coming out strongly onto the political arena is the “joker in the pack” and is an untested entity that not many know which direction he will fire.
Today, as he is holding his Mahanadu, a great showing of strength, complete with all the gimmicks and drama associated with starry projections, Vijay is enacting the real role of his lifetime — at a time when the days of film stars as successful politicians are seemingly over in Tamil Nadu.
According to Prof Ramu Manivannan of Madras University, “these new actors jumping into politics may not be able to replicate the success of yesteryear stars like an MGR or a Karunanidhi or a Jayalalithaa simply because they are entering the political arena at the fag end of their acting career. And most like even Rajinikanth, tried to enter politics without being a part and parcel all their working lives, and politics does not work that way anymore, he reasoned, to assert that “politics is best done by professional politicians.”
But yes, there is an example of Pawan Kalyan in Andhra Pradesh, who kind of made a difference even with his little vote percentage as his popularity dovetailed into the Telugu Desam strength and the BJP’s small penetration. The combine worked, and for TDP, Pawan Kalyan was an add on in terms of its overall vote percentage to put it past Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSRCP. The difference between the winner and the loser was not much in percentage terms, though in numbers it was huge.
It is such a scenario that Pawan Kalyan and his tiny vote percentage, helped.
When it comes to Tamil Nadu, the situation is somewhat different, with the DMK strongly entrenched with a vote percentage along with its allies ahead comfortably. AIADMK got considerably weakened following Mrs Jayalalithaa’s death, and its percentage reduced to just over 20 percent.
But, now, in the new scenario, the AIADMK has nothing to lose and is going full tongs at the DMK, and is bound to pick up anti-establishment vote, and its tie up with BJP gives that incremental vote strength, plus the backing of the central government that has its own political advantages. Which may get affected due to the BJP’s anti-Tamil Nadu image that the DMK has exploited effectively.
But the entry of Actor Vijay, puts a question mark over the current political equations, and will definitely change the equations — and also impact the political parties in ways yet to be estimated correctly.
On the face of it, Actor Vijay should be damaging the prospects of the DMK, with his appeal across youth all over the state, and more over his reach into the minority community, this could make a dent in the DMK-Congress combine’ crucial vote bank, opined Bhagwan Singh, former editor, Deccan Chronicle and a senior Political Analyst from the state.
Quoting a seasoned psephologist, Bhagawan Singh said that Actor Vijay had succeeded in notching up popularity, across sections of the populace and in particular among youth, and his ratings were as high as 30 per cent in some backward, rural and semi urban pockets. Which is clearly bad news for the DMK, which is going in for a re-election in the next hustings — due in May 2026.
But confusing signals emanate from the talk around Actor Vijay and as to who is funding him and goading him to enter politics.
A school of thought is very much prevalent in Tamil Nadu that feels that Actor Vijay has been encouraged to enter politics by the DMK to split the anti-establishment votes and weaken the chances of the NDA comprising AIADMK, BJP and few other parties. But then, equally there is a suspicion among the political observers that the actor was playing the role scripted by the BJP at the centre.
But he for the record, asserts that he was equidistant from both the political formations and that his attack is against both these parties and that he stood for a change in the politics and polity of the state.
But till he actually contests elections, and proves himself, he is an untested entity and everything will depend on his actual conversion of his fan base and craze for him into concrete votes and numbers.
Till then, the jury is out, unimpressed by the huge crowds he draws.
