Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections | Why is Vijay contesting from Chennai a gutsy move?

Chennai: Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) chief C Joseph Vijay has dared to challenge the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in its fortress of Chennai, a gamble that even his predecessors in the tinsel town and politics – the charismatic M G Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa – never took in their early political careers. 

In fact, MGR shifted from St. Thomas Mount on the outskirts of Chennai to distant Aruppukottai when he floated the AIADMK after being expelled from the DMK and never returned to the state capital. His successor J Jayalalithaa contested from one of the city seats – Dr R K Nagar – only at the tail end of her political career after first breaking into the DMK’s bastion of Chennai in the 2006 and 2011 elections. 

‘To demonstrate he is no push-over’

However, Vijay wants to confront the ruling party in its traditional bastion – DMK party and its ally Congress won all 16 city seats in the 2021 polls – in his very first election to send a strong message that he is no pushover. He may have felt that entering the fray from Chennai is one way to maintain momentum for his party and bolster his narrative that the April 23 electoral contest is primarily between the DMK and TVK, sidestepping the AIADMK.

That Vijay is also contesting from a “safe city” of Tiruchirapalli (east) despite the region also being a DMK stronghold – where minorities and youngsters constitute more than half of the total electorate, is a different story altogether. 

But that does not dilute the fact that the actor has chosen to contest from Perambur, which borders Kolathur, from where Chief Minister M K Stalin is seeking re-election. 

Vijay entering the fray from Perambur is likely to create a ripple effect across the city and suburban localities, where the two-year-old party seems popular, especially among youngsters and women. Not just Vijay, almost all known faces of his party are also contesting from Chennai. 

Interesting and difficult constituency

Chennai has always been a hard nut to crack. Except for wave elections, the city has largely sided with the DMK even during the times of MGR, who won three successive elections.

It took decades of hard work for Jayalalithaa to win half of the 14 seats in 2006 and a near-sweep in 2011, but this could not be sustained as the DMK made a strong comeback in 2016 and won all seats in 2021.    

For Vijay, Perambur is an interesting and, in more ways than one, a difficult constituency. DMK has won the seat in nine of the 16 general elections held in independent India with current MLA R D Sekar, who will challenge the actor, winning the seat by an impressive margin of 54,487 votes in 2021. 

It is likely to be a bipolar fight between Vijay and DMK’s Sekar with the AIADMK allotting the seat to its ally PMK, which has little presence there. 

Perambur’s demography

A labour-dominated, and caste-neutral constituency, Perambur is also home to the iconic Integral Coach Factory (ICF) whose employees and those of the Indian Railways have deep-rooted ties to the CPI (M) and DMK. In Vyasarpadi and other slum pockets, Dalit identity is central, and the constituency has a sizeable chunk of minorities such as Christians, Muslims, and Anglo-Indian groups. 

Vijay’s TVK believes that youth, women, and minorities, especially Christians are the biggest support bases of the party and Perambur has them all. 

The impact of cinema is also huge in north Chennai localities like Perambur and the only challenge to Vijay’s on-screen popularity could come from the more than 60-year-old, well-oiled booth-level party machinery of the DMK. 

Despite being part of the core area of old Madras, not just Perambur but almost all of north Chennai suffers from congestion and underdevelopment – this could have also pushed Vijay to contest in the constituency to take on the DMK, whose legislators have governed the city for long. 

‘To exact revenge on DMK’

Senior journalist Maalan Narayanan told DH that Vijay’s move is nothing but an attempt to take the DMK head-on in Chennai and that is the reason the actor-politician is launching his campaign from Stalin’s seat, Kolathur. 

“He seems very angry with the DMK for the hurdles posed to him and he wants to exact revenge. Perambur is not entirely an urban constituency as it has many slum pockets and a sizeable section of labourers. The population is also stable unlike South Chennai where it is floating. Vijay’s film popularity might help him majorly in a constituency like Perambur,” he said. 

Narayanan also said the contest will be interesting to watch since the profile of many constituencies would have changed due to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. “Vijay might be relying on votes from youth and minorities and from his film charisma. Though Chennai has largely voted for the DMK, it has also preferred alternatives when they were available,” he added.

Chennai -- the DMK’s bastion

Chennai has largely remained a DMK bastion. Even though the MGR wave swept through Tamil Nadu in 1977, the AIADMK won only one seat that election with Isari Velan winning from Dr R K Nagar, it rose to two in 1980, and to 3 in 1984 and its ally Congress won one in 1984. 

In the initial years of Jayalalithaa taking over the party, the AIADMK swept Chennai riding high on the sympathy wave generated due to Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination but lost all seats in 1996 and won only four of 14 in 2001. 

Only in 2006, did she manage to break into DMK’s fortress by winning half of the 14 seats and then by winning 14 out of 16 in 2011. The winning streak halted in 2016 when the AIADMK despite Jayalalithaa contesting from R K Nagar in Chennai saw the party win only six of the 16 seats.