Fans and cadre of the fledgling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) are on cloud nine after a recent opinion poll placed party founder president actor Vijay as the preferred CM candidate after MK Stalin, beating by the wayside AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) and the ambitious BJP state president K Annamalai.
Enthused by the findings of the survey by C-Voter, TVK functionaries as well as supporters are jubilant and claim that this goes on to give credence to Vijay’s assertion that the 2026 assembly election is a direct contest between the ruling DMK and the TVK.
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This is a mammoth boost for a party launched only a year ago and preparing to fight the assembly election by staying away from the 2024 Lok Sabha poll. Vijay had slammed the DMK regime as dynastic and monarchical and said women’s power will write the epitaph for the DMK regime.
While Chief Minister Stalin has a rating of 27 percent, Vijay comes close behind with 18 percent. The principal opposition AIADMK’s EPS received a mere 10 percent support and is relegated to the third place whereas Annamalai, who too nurtures Chief Ministerial ambitions, got only 9 percent.
Interestingly, the survey findings come close on the heels of the AIADMK and the BJP appearing to revive their alliance with EPS and Annamalai meeting Union Home Minister and BJP stalwart Amit Shah in the national capital in close succession earlier this week.
For TVK general secretary Aadhav Arjuna, this is a clear indication of Vijay having won the hearts of the people at the beginning of his political journey.
“Despite facing the power of a half-century-old political legacy, control over the administration, and daily propaganda, our leader has won the hearts of the people right at the beginning of his political journey.
“If this is how we are starting, his statewide direct public interactions and protests will only solidify the overwhelming support of the people… securing more than 50% of the public’s trust and leading the state,” he wrote on ‘X’, adding “Monarchy will be abolished! Democracy will be established.”
However, the survey has ignored filmmaker and Chief Coordinator of the ultra- Tamil nationalist Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) which has secured 8.5 percent by ploughing a lonely furrow in the last parliamentary elections and secured as a state party by the Election Commission.
It is widely perceived that the NTK and BJP are vying to poach the AIADMK support base due to the lacklustre leadership of the party, which has been losing every successive election since 2019.
