All eyes on actor Vijay as TN gears up for polls

Nelson Ravi Kumar | NT Chennai, Nov. 4

Popular actor Vijay is the latest from Kollywood to take the time-tested route of fan clubs to St. George Fort, the seat of power in Tamil Nadu, at a time when national parties like the BJP and pro-Tamil outfits are trying to occupy the place of AIADMK, which is facing a severe leadership crisis.

Vijay fans who are look- ing to contest the urban  local body elections in December this year assert that  after a decade, state politics will be a battle between their hero and Udhayanidhi Stalin, the third generation leader from the DMK. All eyes are on Vijay’s next move after his fan club members won over 100 ru- ral panchayat wards in the  rural local body elections held this month. Parties like actor Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiyam and pro-Tamil outfit ‘Naam Thamizhar’ which polled over eight per cent votes in the 2021 assembly elections were planning to take the  third spot in the state’s po- litical arena and gradually  take the second place occupied by the AIADMK.

 The success of actor Vi- jay’s fan clubs by just dis-playing the photographs of  the hero, who did not even campaign during the polls, has left all the parties in a state of shock. Any party which takes the third place at the present juncture is  seen as an emerging alternative to the  AIADMK and t h e f u t u re challenge to the DMK. Vijay has about 78,000 fan clubs in the state and  25 is the minimum number mandated for the recognition of a fan  club, as per t h e n o r m s set by the head office.

The Vijay fans association’s Facebook page alone has 7.8 lakh followers. Vijay has been dabbling with politics for more than ten years. In 2009, when thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils were killed by Sri Lankan military, Vijay organised a separate  protest demanding a cease- fire in the island nation.  

Vijay’s credentials were boosted by his wife, who is a Tamil migrant from S r i L a n k a . Vijay’s move is similar to  what actor Vijayakanth did  in 2005 when he fielded his  fans as candi- dates in local