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Vijay pitches direct battle with Stalin without committing to NDA after Karur tragedy
After the Karur stampede, actor Vijay's party TVK affirmed its opposition to DMK and ruled out alliance talks, positioning itself for the 2026 elections.
In its first party meeting since the Karur stampede in which 41 people died, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) headed by actor Vijay on Wednesday ruled out any change in stance on alliance amid overtures from the BJP-AIADMK combine after the tragedy and that he will remain the main contender against the ruling DMK government in Tamil Nadu ahead of the 2026 assembly elections.
TVK passed 12 resolutions including naming their party president Vijay as the chief ministerial candidate, authorising him to decide on alliance matters, and attacking the DMK- led state government and BJP-led Union government over various issues. In doing so the actor has made it clear that he will make his political debut in next year’s elections -by continuing how he positioned TVK when he launched the party in 2024- as the political alternative to the DMK and the ideological alternative to the BJP. “I’m saying again now, the fight in 2026 is between only two parties–TVK and DMK,” Vijay reiterated on Wednesday. “This fight has just become stronger.”
Since the stampede at Vijay’s rally in Karur district on September 27, the BJP and ally AIADMK have openly wooed the Kollywood icon, who demands a monumental following among his fans who are primarily young men and women, into the fold of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The Wednesday meeting in Mahabalipuram near Chennai—where Vijay met grieving families brought from Karur on a bus more than 400 km away on October 27, a month after the tragedy– began with a tribute to the victims. TVK continued to blame security lapses and suggest a conspiracy for the stampede that killed 41 people including children.
In his 14-minute speech focussing only on the Karur tragedy, Vijay said he was silent out of grief but during this time, a campaign was unleashed against them by the DMK led by its president and chief minister M K Stalin. Vijay was earlier criticised for flying back immediately to Chennai after the stampede, breaking his silence three days later, speaking to the families two weeks later on video calls while transferring electronically a solatium of ₹20-lakh each to the families and later bringing grieving families to meet him instead of going to Karur.
Vijay accused Stalin of pretending to take a moral high ground and not politicising the stampede while doing just the opposite such as spreading misinformation, making top IAS and IPS officers to give a joint press briefing, and hastily forming a one-person judicial commission which the Supreme Court struck down. “His speech in the Assembly against us was filled with bitterness,” Vijay said. Reading out several portions of the SC judgement from October 14 transferring the probe into the Karur stampede to the CBI, Vijay said that the whole country watched the top court asking questions to lawyers representing the DMK government, leaving them defenseless. “The chief minister is playing such politics but it’s not new,” said Vijay. “Since 1972, this is how the DMK leadership has been since no one questioned them. Today, I didn’t ask the questions but the SC is asking such questions doubting a probe under this government. This means the SC and the people have no faith in this government. If the Chief Minister cannot understand this, people will teach the DMK leadership a lesson in the 2026 elections.”
The Karur stampede is now being investigated by the CBI on orders of the Supreme Court based on TVK’s petition against a Madras high court ordered special investigation team (SIT) led by the Tamil Nadu police.
“Like Karur, in other places too they (state police) don’t give us permission until the last minute. We ask for spacious venues. But they only give us permission in narrow places…In India, I don’t think any politician faces the restrictions they give me- to remain inside the (campaign) bus, to not wave my hand from atop (the bus),” Vijay said. The Madras high court in October directed the state to draft a standard operating procedure (SOP) for all parties to conduct political rallies in the state based on TVK’s petition asking for uniformity.
The resolutions passed included condemning the DMK government for deteriorating law and order after the Coimbatore sexual violence, criticising the BJP over irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision(SIR) of electoral rolls and attacks on Tamil fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy.
Though Vijay had been unsparing in his past speeches against the DMK and BJP, he has not attacked AIADMK general secretary Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS). Not beyond describing the AIADMK as opportunistic for being with the BJP. He did not criticise the BJP in his speech on Wednesday. “There is no alliance talk for now. Our stance reflects in the resolutions passed today,” said a member of Vijay’s team. Vijay had earlier promised a share in power appealing to like-minded parties to join him.
Reacting to Vijay’s speech, the AIADMK said that people will decide who will win in 2026 and still did not target the actor. “Every party will want to succeed on their own,” said AIADMK organising secretary D Jayakumar. “TVK has said that their party will lead an alliance. We are saying that our party will lead an alliance. It’s just each of our party’s opinions.”
In October, EPS pointed to a couple of TVK flags that were held up at his political rally and said that a grand alliance will soon form in Tamil Nadu to defeat the ruling DMK. Several second rung AIADMK leaders soon began echoing the same remarks. The BJP also courted Vijay by absolving him of any wrongdoing in the Karur stampede and the NDA’s fact finding team on the tragedy blamed security arrangements under the DMK regime.
DMK leader TKS Elangovan said, “When 41 people die, it is the duty of the government to inquire into what happened. Vijay may not be responsible, but a government has to take care of its citizens.”
