At a time when Seeman’s Naam Thamilar and Kamal Hassan’s Makkal Needhi Maim have drawn a blank in the rural local body polls held in nine reorganised districts in Tamil Nadu, members of actor Vijay fans association have made a grand political entry through the rural local body polls.
The members of the Thalapathy Vijay Makkal Iyakkam (TVMI) have won 115 of the 169 seats they had contested in the rural local body polls. Of the 169 seats contested, TVMI won 102 through election and 13 seats unopposed. The performance of TVMI comes as a surprise, at a time when Vijay has chosen to remain silent about his political plans. In fact, when his father S.A. Chandrasekar registered a political party in Vijay’s name, the actor chose to distance himself and asked his fan club members not to be part of the party registered by his father.
TVMI members have won in all districts which went for civic polls - Kanchipuram, Chengalpattu, Kallakurichi, Villupuram, Ranipet, Tirupattur, Tenkasi and Tirunelveli, making a significant mark in Kallakurichi, Kanchipuram and Villupuram. “In Vanur panchayat union of Villupuram district, Savitri, who belongs to TVMI, has been elected as the panchayat president. The response has been amazing. Women, youth and children have got great admiration towards Thalapathy,” TVMI general secretary Bussy N. Anand said.
More than the victory, what's surprising is that neither the actor nor the office bearers of TVMI openly campaigned for the contestants or even spoke about their contest. Apparently, in September, when the announcement for rural local body polls came up, closed meetings were reportedly held at Vijay’s swanky bungalow at Paiyyanur, in the outskirts of Chennai, with the fan club members. It was said that Vijay gave the green signal for those willing to contest, and were allowed to contest independently. Also, after discussions, the candidates were allowed to use the flag and Vijay’s images on the posters.
While Vijay is yet to take a firm decision on taking the political plunge, the fan club members winning the elections have raised speculations on whether there will be yet another star rising in Tamil Nadu politics. However, except for MGR, Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa, the other film stars failed to make a mark in the state politics.
