Vijay: TVK won’t contest upcoming state bypolls
Tamil actor Vijay on Tuesday announced that his newly floated party, TVK will neither contest not support any other party in the upcoming by-election
Tamil actor Vijay on Tuesday announced that his newly floated party, Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK), will neither contest not support any other party in the upcoming by-election from the Vikravandi assembly seat and that they will directly enter the political arena only for the 2026 assembly elections.
Four months after Vijay launched his party in February, with an aim to contest in 2026, he reiterated his goal on Tuesday to win the bigger assembly elections. He said that they will not contest in any election, including local body polls, until then.
TVK general secretary N Bussy Anand said: “Our party chief (Vijay) has already announced that winning the 2026 assembly elections is our primary goal. He will announce the party’s ideology and programs to be implemented during the first conference of the party to be held soon. He (Vijay) will also tour the length and breadth of Tamil Nadu after the conference. Therefore, I would like to announce that TVK will not contest in any election, including the local body elections, to be held before 2026.”
The bypoll to Vikravandi will be contested between the ruling DMK and NDA’s ally PMK, and NTK with Tamil Nadu’s principal opposition AIADMK boycotting the elections. This is the first poll since the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections in which the DMK had a landslide victory winning all 30 parliamentary seats in Tamil Nadu.
{{/usCountry}}The bypoll to Vikravandi will be contested between the ruling DMK and NDA’s ally PMK, and NTK with Tamil Nadu’s principal opposition AIADMK boycotting the elections. This is the first poll since the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections in which the DMK had a landslide victory winning all 30 parliamentary seats in Tamil Nadu.
{{/usCountry}}It will be a crowded affair in 2026 with the entry of Vijay who enjoys a cult-like following for his movies and is the latest entrant from the silver screen in a state where matinee idols have straddled politics either successfully or unsuccessfully. While the main contenders would be chief minister and DMK president MK Stalin and Leader of Opposition and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, Vijay will also be facing S Seeman’s Naam Tamizhar Katchi (NTK) and BJP led by its Tamil Nadu state president K Annamalai.
{{/usCountry}}It will be a crowded affair in 2026 with the entry of Vijay who enjoys a cult-like following for his movies and is the latest entrant from the silver screen in a state where matinee idols have straddled politics either successfully or unsuccessfully. While the main contenders would be chief minister and DMK president MK Stalin and Leader of Opposition and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, Vijay will also be facing S Seeman’s Naam Tamizhar Katchi (NTK) and BJP led by its Tamil Nadu state president K Annamalai.
{{/usCountry}}In a surprise move, his fans entered the political fray under the Thalapathy Vijay Makkal Iyakkam in the rural body polls held in October 2021. They won 115 out of the 169 seats from where they contested—a 68% strike rate. Though the number is small scale, in their debut election, they managed to outdo actor Kamal Hassan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) who have now joined the DMK and Seeman’s NTK, which emerged as the third largest party in the assembly elections, as they both drew a blank. The ruling DMK swept the rural body polls held in nine newly carved districts.
