‘Vijay opened people’s eyes’: In Chennai, jubilation outside one party office, heartbreak at another

Athikesu Sundarsagar, 73, was born in Malaysia, is a Malaysian citizen who served in the country’s armed forces and now lives in Australia.

But on Monday, he stood outside the Chennai office of Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam as the two-year-old political party founded by actor-turned-politician Vijay pulled off a dramatic victory in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.

“After all, I’m a Tamilian,” Sundarsagar said. “I belong to Malaysia, but my heart belongs in Tamil Nadu.”

Sundarsagar is a supporter of the TVK because he is a fan of Vijay. His favourite movie of Vijay was the 1999 thriller Nenjinile, where the actor plays a poor young man who takes to a life of crime in Mumbai but ultimately kills his criminal boss to protect a woman he loves.

“These other political parties were giving bribes to people to get their votes,” Sundarsagar said, referring to a Rs 5,000 monthly aid given to more than a crore women in the run-up to the polls by the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government. “But Vijay has opened people’s eyes.”

As of 7 pm, the Election Commission website said the TVK was poised to win over a hundred seats and become the single-largest party in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.

Neither the DMK, led by outgoing Chief Minister MK Stalin, nor its traditional rival, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, or AIADMK, could come close. The former won 59 seats and the latter 45 out of a total of 234.

“Good riddance to bad rubbish,” said Sundarsagar of the two parties.

Unlike Sundarsagar, most of the people celebrating outside the TVK office in Panaiyur, one of the city’s most affluent neighbourhoods, were young men.

They sported red-and-yellow medal ribbons with Vijay’s face on their shirts and carried whistles – the party’s election symbol – which they blew at every opportunity, especially before TV cameras. Nearby, an old TVK worker had set up a stall that sold Vijay rings, Vijay stickers and Vijay chains.

But the gate of the TVK office was shut. No one had an idea when the actor would arrive, if at all. A woman peeped through a small opening in the door, hoping to catch a glimpse of the star whose political fortunes had risen.

Among the fans was Kishore, a young journalist who doubled up as a Vijay supporter. “We wanted change,” he said. “Before voting day, I went to my parents and told them that, for once, forget DMK and AIADMK and vote for Vijay. Just one chance.”

Tamil Nadu has alternated between these two major parties since 1967. TVK’s campaign, Kishore added, offered a third alternative. “He [Vijay] has supporters across all castes and communities,” he added. “Everyone has voted for him.”

‘Shock’ at the DMK office

If the mood outside the TVK office was boisterous and exultant, at the DMK office 20 km away it was anything but. Most exit polls had predicted that the 76-year-old party would win a comfortable majority. But it led only in the early morning trends and was pipped by Vijay’s political upstart and even by the AIADMK by noon, eventually settling into the second position by evening.

At its headquarters in Anna Salai, DMK party workers looked confused and listless. Some stared into empty space while others gathered around a phone, staring at the latest seat count, as if it would flip any second. One of them summed up the mood with two words: “shocked” and “unexpected”.

“The people between 25 and 40 years of age had all voted for Vijay,” said the DMK worker. “Even if their own parents have voted for DMK for generations. Even in Chennai, where we are very strong, we are trailing in 14 of the 16 seats.”

Muthu, 30, a server in a cafe in Chennai, beamed at the mention of Vijay. He pointed to a group of colleagues at the other end of the cafe. They were all young men who were laughing and bantering while looking into a phone. “All of us voted for him,” he said. “The DMK government was good but it had one big problem: there were too many rowdies. There was a lot of crime. Vijay will fix all that.”