Chennai: Months after launching Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), actor-turned-politician C. Joseph Vijay made his maiden political speech Sunday announcing the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) as its political rival and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as its ideological rival.
At a conference, Vijay first revealed that his party’s ideologues were social reformist Periyar, Constitution framer B.R.Ambedkar, former Tamil Nadu (erstwhile Madras State) chief minister K. Kamaraj, and women freedom fighters Velu Nachiyar and Anjalai Ammal.
Vijay, fondly called as Thalapathy, however, took an exception to Periyar’s atheism ideology.
“Periyar is our primary ideological leader. But, we will not adopt his atheism ideology alone. We neither agree nor believe in it. However, as former Chief Minister CN Annadurai said, we stand by One Race, One God principle (Ondre Kulam, Oruvane Thevan). Nevertheless, we will embrace all other principles of Periyar including education for women, equality for all and social justice politics,” Vijay told the gathering at Vikravandi.
With the crowd cheering up, he declared that Kamaraj and Ambedkar would be his party’s guiding force. As for Nachiyar and Ammal, he asserted that TVK was the first party to have women leaders as its ideological guiding forces.
He also pointed out that in terms of ideology, his party was not going to shrink itself to one specific identity. “We are not going to separate Dravidian and Tamil nationalism. Dravidian and Tamil nationalism are two eyes of this soil,” he asserted.
While he had announcing decision to contest in the 2026 Tamil Nadu elections in February, Vijay had launched his party’s flag and flag song at TVK’s headquarters at Panaiyur in August.
Soon after declaring his ideological leaders, Vijay tactically said that the BJP and the DMK are its rival parties.
“Just by taking a stand itself, it would have been known to everybody who our opponents are. During the announcement of our party, when we said ‘all are born equal’ (a line from Tamil classic Tirukkural), people would have identified who our real opponents are. But, we are not only fighting against the divisive politics alone, but also against the corrupt forces,” he said, without naming either the BJP and the DMK.
He took a dig at the ruling DMK saying that it was easier to identify the divisive forces, but difficult to identify the corrupt forces since “they hide behind the mask of ideology and principles”. “Those who rule here are the corrupt forces,” Vijay added.
A family is exploiting the State in the name of the Dravidian model government and Periyar, he said. “They are projecting an anti-people government as a Dravidian model government. They are our political enemies.”
He went on to take on the DMK that there was no difference between the BJP at the Centre and the DMK at the State. “You (DMK) have been criticising them (BJP) as fascist. If they are fascists, who are you then?”
Vijay assured fellow political rivals of a power sharing agreement in 2026 and invited like-minded parties to join him.
“Although we are confident that the TVK will win by a simple majority, people may want to travel with us to serve the people. Such a political situation may arise. With this, I would like to ensure that there would be power sharing with those who join with the TVK in political travel,” he said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
