Over the past few days, the talk in Tamil Nadu’s political circles has centered around actor Vijay’s debut speech and its impact.

One rally in Vikravandi was attended by several tens of thousands of party supporters and cadres. In fact, in recent years, no other political party launch had seen the kind of crowd that Vijay had attracted. So clearly, Tamil Nadu politics has got back a crowd puller after the deaths of Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa. So that is a positive for Vijay. At least 50% of the crowd that turned out at the rally was an organic crowd, and it comprised a significant section of youth and in good measure women as well.

Now let’s take a look at the speech he made. This was the rally, where Vijay chose to explain where his party stands in terms of its ideologies. Eight months ago, when he mooted the idea of floating the TVK, he had made it clear that his politics would be against corruption and divisiveness. He has stuck to that script in a speech which appeared to be more scripted and well practiced and delivered in a very high, powerful tone.

He explained that his party will be ideologically opposed to sectarian forces. At the same time, the party’s political enemy, according to him, will be a family that has been ruling Tamil Nadu in the name of Dravida model invoking the names of Periyar and Anna.

In fact, he explained that he does not want to name anybody or indulge in name calling, but he left no one in doubt that he was ideologically opposed to the BJP and politically opposed to the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu. He remained silent about the AIADMK, a political party which has cumulatively ruled Tamil Nadu for the longest period.

What were the other things that stood out in his speech? How would it impact the ruling DMK?

Script and presentation: D. Suresh Kumar

Editing: Shibu Narayan