New Delhi: The fight in Tamil Nadu is between the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)—contrary to what actor Vijay says—according to Khushboo Sundar, vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Tamil Nadu unit.
Her comments came days after Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) founder and actor Vijay, addressing a gathering in Vellore on 23 February, said, “The competition is between Vijay and Stalin sir. Tamil Nadu is Vijay, Vijay is Tamil Nadu. The war is between TVK and DMK.”
In an interview, Sundar told ThePrint, “When it comes to the real political battlefield, everyone knows that the contest is primarily between the DMK and the NDA. Vijay is somewhere in between. We have to wait and see how much impact or damage he creates on either side.”
Explaining the impact that the TVK will have on the upcoming Tamil Nadu assembly elections, the BJP leader admitted that the “younger generation is excited because Vijay is the most popular actor we have in Tamil Nadu today,” but also pointed out that “politics is a different ball game altogether”.
“So yes, people are excited that he has entered politics,” Sundar said.
The AIADMK and the BJP are contesting the upcoming state elections together. Their alliance was revived last year at a press conference in Chennai, in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS).
Hoping to make inroads in the southern state, the BJP also appointed Union Minister Piyush Goyal as its election in-charge.
Sundar, commenting on the TVK, said Vijay’s fame won’t guarantee the chief minister’s chair. “If Vijay thinks that in this very election he is going to become the chief minister, and if someone is guiding him in that direction, I would say that’s absolutely wrong. I would say, ‘brother, you are being very naïve and new to politics’,” she said.
“Gone are the days when Puratchi Thalaivar MGR could be in a hospital in the US, unable to speak, having lost his voice, just (gesturing) from his hospital bed, and there would be a sweeping victory for the AIADMK. Those days are gone. You can’t do that anymore,” she added.
“Times have changed. The people who come to see you are not necessarily the people who will vote for you. Yes, you will garner a decent amount of public support, and I agree with that. But how long that support will sustain is a big question mark.”
The BJP leader further said that how long Vijay will be able to sustain the momentum will also be a deciding factor in the 2026 state elections.
On Vijay’s comment that the real fight is between the DMK and his recently launched party, Sundar said, “His strong opposition to the DMK is very clear, so that may be why he feels that way. But when it comes to the real political battlefield, everyone knows that the contest is primarily between the DMK and the NDA. Vijay is somewhere in between.”
Referring to former chief minister and AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa, Sundar said that there was a time when people were saying that she would never return to power because, in Tamil Nadu’s history, no ruling government had come back to power consecutively.
“But she changed that narrative—she won and returned to power back-to-back. People also said the BJP would never find a foothold in the South. Yet in Kerala, we have won seats and have the first mayor in Thiruvananthapuram. People said the lotus would never bloom in Tamil Nadu, but today there are four sitting MLAs in the state. So times are changing,” Sundar further said.
“We are very hopeful and very positive that in this election, India will witness a very big victory,” she added.
In the 2021 Tamil Nadu assembly election, the BJP contested 20 seats and won four, securing a statewide vote share of 2.62 percent. The AIADMK contested 179 seats and, with a 33.29 percent vote share, won 66.
Commenting on the prospects of the BJP in the state, Sundar said the BJP stood at a “very bright spot”.
“The kind of faith people have shown towards the BJP, towards the Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji, looking at the good work that the BJP government has done in the last 12 years, we are at a very bright spot,” Sundar stressed.
“The times have changed when people said that the BJP could never find a place in the hearts of the people of Tamil Nadu. We have four sitting MLAs… I’m very sure that the numbers are going to grow.”
Addressing the language issue and the DMK’s allegations against the BJP of imposing Hindi, Sundar claimed, “Every school, every educational institution—which is run by the DMK—teaches Hindi as a second language… They all run the CBSE formula.”
Sundar questioned if the DMK was so particular about Tamil, Tamil culture, and Tamil language, “Why did they not run state board schools?”
“The maximum number of people who actually take up Hindi as a language is from Tamil Nadu. So whatever the wrong propaganda you’re trying to do, you still have people taking up Hindi as a second language,” she added.
Asked to comment on the BJP’s perception of being an anti-minority party, Sundar said that every scheme of the Modi government was for each citizen and that there was no discrimination.
Commenting on a recent controversy involving former BJP MP Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuria, who turned away Muslim women from a charity event in Tonk district, where he distributed blankets to poor families, with the comment that “they abuse PM Modi”, Sundar said it was an unfortunate incident. “I’m very sure that even Modi ji wouldn’t accept that,” she said.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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