Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections 2026 | Vijay on course to break Dravidian duopoly of DMK and AIADMK

The victory signifies the yearning for a change among the people of Tamil Nadu who had grown fatigued with DMK and AIADMK who have ruled alternatively since 1967.

Chennai: Actor-politician C Joseph Vijay, on Monday (May 4), effectively broke the Dravidian duopoly of DMK and AIADMK by steering his party, Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) to a historic win in the Assembly elections.

Vijay’s TVK emerged as the single largest party as it is leading in about 112 seats, just six seats short of simple majority, and he will be the Chief Minister with help from Congress, and Left parties.

Back-channel talks have already been established to provide outside support or join the government. Vijay’s march to power was not just historic but has very little parallel — he has even surpassed the popularity of the legendary M G Ramachandran and N T Rama Rao from Andhra Pradesh who came to power in their first elections. From Chennai to northern districts to Coimbatore to Dindigul to Madurai to Thoothukudi to Kanyakumari — the whistle ruled every part of the state, with the ruling DMK pushed to the third position.

If the current leads hold true, the AIADMK will emerge as the Opposition party by winning over 50 seats. The humiliation for the DMK was complete with Chief Minister M K Stalin himself trailing behind TVK’s V S Babu in Kolathur constituency in Chennai.

Over 30 of the 34 Cabinet Ministers were on the verge of losing in the Vijay tsunami that swept through the state.

This election was like the 1967 polls when the DMK overthrew the Congress regime at the height of the anti-Hindi agitation. Like the Rising Sun and C N Annadurai then, it was only Vijay and whistle this election — nothing else, including candidates, mattered. Most of the leading candidates or already declared winners of the TVK were political novices.

The victory signifies the yearning for a change among the people of Tamil Nadu who had grown fatigued with the DMK and AIADMK who have ruled the state alternatively since 1967.

Vijay demolished the vote bank of every political party, especially the DMK, to sweep the state. His party has performed spectacularly well in the Greater Chennai region where the TVK was leading in over 30 of the 37 seats. Not just urban centres, the party has done well in rural areas as well.

This phenomenal success has come despite Vijay campaigning the least when compared to his challengers M K Stalin and Edappadi K Palaniswami.

Vijay choosing to contest from Perambur in Chennai, a DMK citadel, seems to have worked wonders for the TVK with the ripple effect helping to sweep the region.

Even MGR could not break DMK’s stranglehold over Chennai in his debut elections as AIADMK chief.