In just a few days it will be two months since Joseph Vijay took charge as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. The primary opposition parties, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), have largely been offering criticisms dripping with mockery regarding his governance.
However, since Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) came to power, the approaches and actions of political forces have been reshaping the state’s political landscape. Looking at the political trends of the past two months, one is compelled to ask whether the parties and groups long aligned with the DMK were eagerly waiting for a convenient opportunity to exit that alliance.
Parties like the Congress, the Communist parties, the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML)—which previously contested elections alongside the DMK, have now joined the TVK government and secured ministerial portfolios. MDMK leader Vaiko has stepped into action to coordinate and strengthen the parties supporting the current government.
A massive reshuffling of alliances is bound to happen in future by-elections and general elections. Until now, smaller parties had no choice but to contest in alliance with one of the two major Dravidian parties. Vijay’s party has now emerged as a formidable alternative. Consequently, there is a strong possibility that the DMK might be pushed into a position where it has to contest elections largely on its own.
During the assembly election campaigns, Vijay did not heavily attack the AIADMK. Instead, he directed his harshest criticism at the DMK, labeling it an “evil force” (theeya sakthi) that needed to be uprooted from politics. Paradoxically, after the election results and Vijay’s ascension to power, the political entity suffering the most severe blows is not that “evil force,” but rather the AIADMK, led by former Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami.
AIADMK MLAs are continuously resigning from their posts to join Vijay’s party. Several key second-line leaders, who held significant regional influence within the AIADMK, have migrated to the TVK. Unlike the AIADMK’s founder, M.G. Ramachandran (MGR), or Jayalalithaa, who subsequently built the party into a powerhouse, Palaniswami lacks that towering, charismatic mass appeal. As a result, he finds himself helpless in stopping the exodus of his party members.
AIADMK politicians and grassroots workers have lived for over half a century under the shadow of two colossal cinema-turned-political icons: MGR and Jayalalithaa. In the absence of such magnetic personalities, they have lost faith that their party can ever return to power under someone like Palaniswami.
To secure their political future, they are now looking up to Vijay and his TVK as their guiding star. To them, he represents the state’s latest cinema-turned-political icon who has managed to capture power within a remarkably short span. This shift in perception is driving the current wave of defections.
For his part, Vijay views the AIADMK leaders and cadres — who possess a deeply ingrained, traditional animosity toward the DMK and the Karunanidhi family — as a fertile resource to strengthen his own party.
Today’s shifting political equations in Tamil Nadu are casting a massive shadow of doubt over the future of a party that MGR founded 54 years ago as a powerhouse of public support.
