Survey creates buzz on Vijay’s political plunge

CHENNAI: There’s a renewed buzz among Vijay fans on their ‘Thalapathy’ taking a political plunge, eyeing the 2026 Assembly polls, after the actor’s fans and social service organisation Vijay Makkal Iyakkam came out with a questionnaire to collect feedback from voters.

Iyakkam has started circulating forms to collect booth/ward-level details crucial for any organisation before rechristening itself as a political party and contesting State elections. Only a week ago, Vijay Makkal Iyakkam (VMI) workers celebrated Dr Ambedkar’s birth anniversary in a reach out across Tamil Nadu. The organisation has also lined up some iftar feasts ahead of Ramzan.

The organisation is collecting the details of voters (male, female, third gender), vote bank dimensions, winner in last five polls, vote share, caste details, notable personalities in the constituency with their occupation, number of booths, total wards of each town/village panchayats in each Assembly constituency etc.

VMI sources told DT Next that they are moving a step forward to strengthen their organisation and are collecting psephology details to convert the Iyakkam into a strong political party.

“To strengthen the Iyakkam and to convert it to a major movement, the general secretary of VMI, Bussy Anand, has been touring all the districts in the State since April 15. VMI had already contested in the previous local body polls. We have even plans to contest the upcoming parliamentary elections next year,” multiple sources from VMI said.

While fans and VMI members are going gaga over the ambitious drive by Bussy Anand, political commentators and pundits demand more political understanding from actor himself.

“Actor Vijay is not clear about his vision and goal in politics. Without clarity and principle, he cannot create an impact in politics. Except for his films, he never raised his voice for any of the public interest issues. He didn’t come forward for issues like NEET, State’s riparian rights over Mullaiperiyar and the Cauvery River. He has the support of fans from the age of 10 to 25 and in my view, it may not be sufficient to create an impact on his political entry,” opined Priyan, a political analyst.

“There are only two dominant ideologies in Tamil Nadu politics. One is Dravidian and the other is Hindutva. As the actor belongs to a minority community, he cannot join or support BJP. As he is an actor, he cannot join or ally with DMK because the party has another actor-politician in Udhayanidhi. When it comes to politics, how could he survive? It can be a rustle, noise but not voice,” he opined.

“This may be Vijay’s testing game. As he is popular among the people of Tamil Nadu, he can come to politics with clarity,” said Sumanth C Raman, a political analyst.

Elections are not new to Vijay Makkal Iyakkam workers. In 2019, 2020 and 2022 the candidates from VMI successfully contested the local body elections as independent candidates.