As TVK raises ‘Vijay for PM’ pitch after 3 months in govt, Congress sneers

Last week, Tamil Nadu Human Resources Management Minister D Sarathkumar had praised Vijay’s work ethic and declared him the 'next Indian PM'.

File photo of Tamil Nadu CM Vijay at Tamil Nadu House in New Delhi on 27 May, 2026 | Suraj Singh Bisht/ThePrint

Chennai: Three-and-a-half months after winning the Tamil Nadu elections, legislators of the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) have begun projecting Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay as a potential prime minister (PM).

“People from north Indian states are also looking forward to our leader Vijay; he is the one who has the power to rule entire India,” senior TVK leader K.A. Sengottaiyan said on Sunday. Speaking at a public meeting held in Tiruppur to list the 100-day achievements of the TVK government, Sengottaiyan said, “I have travelled with MGR and Jayalalithaa. After these two leaders, Vijay is the force who will not only rule Tamil Nadu but also the future India, following their path.”

Earlier last week, during the Budget Session of the Tamil Nadu Assembly, Human Resources Management Minister D. Sarathkumar had praised Vijay’s work ethic and declared him the “next Indian PM”.

“Our leader, who is a chief minister in our hearts, home and St. George’s Fort, is the next Indian PM. You are the next PM. You work without looking at AM or PM, you are definitely the next PM,” he had said.

Other TVK leaders have also floated the idea that the next prime minister should be from a southern state. Public Works Minister Aadhav Arjuna has said that state ideally is Tamil Nadu. “In the current political climate, a situation exists where just five or six Hindi-speaking northern states come together and they determine India’s prime minister. This threatens to erode the political representation rights of southern states like Tamil Nadu, which have controlled population growth and achieved progress in education and the economy.”

The PM pitch has drawn a sharp, dismissive response from ally Congress. Tamil Nadu Congress chief Manickam Tagore said TVK leaders were still operating in “fan club mode”. “They are still in fan club mode. Those who are in fan club mode cannot be changed,” he remarked, responding to ministers projecting Vijay as a future PM.

Tagore also recalled that Vijay had first approached Rahul Gandhi for support to form the government after the Assembly results, and that Congress was the first party to back TVK. Congress MP Karti Chidambaram said that TVK leaders were far from reality, and acknowledged that party workers can have affection and ambitions for their leader but stressed that national leadership is decided by numbers.

“There are 543 constituencies. According to the Constitution, the leader of whichever alliance wins 272 constituencies, or whichever party wins, will be the prime minister of India. You and I both know what that political reality is,” he told the media on Monday. He added that internal party wishes make no difference to public discourse, which should focus on policy and law, and that parties can have dreams, ambitions and desires but must recognise constitutional realities.

Analysts note the remarks reflect early confidence after a successful 100-day period rather than a formal party motive, even as the Congress or TVK have not made any formal moves in an attempt to pitch Vijay as PM.

“Congress views the aspirations as premature and secondary to electoral arithmetic. There is no friction between Congress and TVK so far and Vijay would not make any such moves, especially as the TVK government is only about three months old. The party may expand gradually but currently, they aim to focus on governance and state politics,” political analyst Arun Kumar told ThePrint.

Keralam expansion on cards

Meanwhile, it is clear that TVK is not limiting itself to Tamil Nadu as the induction of Keralam actor-politician S. Devan makes clear. Devan, who recently resigned as Bharatiya Janata Party vice-president of Kerala, citing lack of functional space and ideological differences, announced he would join the TVK on Sunday.

He said party representatives met him, followed by a video conference, after which he accepted the invitation. A formal meeting with TVK leaders in Tamil Nadu is scheduled for 10 September, after which the announcement will be made. Devan has been offered the post of TVK Keralam state president, with discussions to be finalised during the meeting.

The development is widely seen as TVK’s first concrete step toward expansion in Keralam, with several fan clubs and TVK members already functioning in the state, where Vijay has long enjoyed a strong fan base and box-office success.

The Vijay videos

A wave of viral videos are picking up pace on social media platforms that are seen circulating primarily through Hindi-speaking influencers and north Indian social media accounts. These videos have attributed a series of dramatic policy “breakthroughs” to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, which are either false or heavily distorted.

These include claims such as Vijay ordering the death penalty or police encounters for rape accused regardless of the victim’s age or religion, waiving all private hospital bills in cases of patient death, and single-handedly boosting Tamil Nadu’s electronics exports to nearly half of India’s total within weeks. Many videos also show influencers talking about Vijay’s attempts to ban cow slaughter via a high court intervention, or introduction of brand-new welfare measures that are in fact long-standing schemes of previous governments.

Many of the reels follow near-identical scripts, dramatic narration and graphics, and have racked up millions of views by portraying Vijay as a decisive strongman delivering instant justice and reforms. The TVK and the Chief Minister’s Office have largely remained silent on these specific videos, issuing no official clarifications despite the huge volume of content.

Political analyst Sunil Kumar says that the campaign might not be directly led by the party but very identical scripts and visuals “somewhere suggest the propaganda is run by Vijay fan clubs or TVK members. The videos appear to be designed to seed the idea of Vijay as a national contender long before any formal political outreach, capitalising on social-media algorithms for visibility”.

(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)