Political foray: Actor Vijayakant displays the party flag after the launch of DMDK in Madurai September 14, 2005. | Photo Credit: Hindu Archives
Actor-TVK founder C. Joseph Vijay’s anti-corruption plan is nothing new as film stars who float their own parties in Tamil Nadu have taken up the same theme to gain popularity and massive votes. After launching the ADMK (later AIADMK) in 1972, MG Ramachandran said that DMK leaders rejected his demand for disclosure of party assets. Asked about Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s statement that he was given time to “express regret”, MGR said he would not regret as long as he lived. Instead, DMK leaders should express regret, he added.
When he landed in Coimbatore in November, the police had a tough time as party men broke through the barricades and attacked the plane in which he landed. At a public meeting in Tiruppur, he announced that the ADMK-CPI agitation was “paralyzing” the DMK government. When he asked the crowd if they were ready for any sacrifice to get the corrupt and bureaucratic DMK out of power, the crowd responded unanimously in the affirmative.
When Jayalalithaa launched her AIADMK faction (Jayalalitha) in 1989 after the death of her mentor MGR, she promised a clean and efficient government in her election manifesto. “A new era in Tamil Nadu politics was ushered in when MGR was in the saddle for 11 years. But after he fell seriously ill in 1984, there was chaos and confusion and those around him took advantage of his physical incapacity. After his death, corrupt elements remained in the faction and the onus fell on the AIADMK (Jayalalithasada) to continue MGR’s resolve. The voters to establish MGR’s government were committed to welfare the people,” the manifesto said.
Accusations of corruption
However, her first government (1991-96) faced numerous allegations of corruption, and eventually Jayalalithaa herself was prosecuted for acquiring wealth disproportionate to her known sources of income. Her close aide VK Sasikala went to jail while the charges against Jayalalithaa were “dropped” after her death.
DMDK founder Vijayakant was another anti-corruption crusader. The actor-turned-politician said he would not rest without putting an end to the “injustice” meted out to the people by the two main Dravidian parties – DMK and AIADMK over the years. During his 2006 campaigns, he often stuck to his slogan of corruption by Dravidian majors. “The fight against the British was vellaiyane veliyeru (Quit India Movement). Now is the time for us to push out the corrupt forces, so it is kollaiyane veliyeru,” was his slogan. He attacked DMK and AIAMK as evil forces. But he was in alliance with the AIADMK for the 2011 assembly elections and became the Leader of the Opposition.
‘Between Good and Evil’
Ahead of the 2016 assembly elections, he led a new alliance called the People’s Welfare Front. He said both DMK and AIADMK have been cheating people for decades. “This is a battle between good and evil,” he said, calling the third front an alternative to corrupt parties. “My alliance is with the people” has been his catchphrase since he founded his party in 2005.
Cut to the present day and Mr. Vijay has embarked on an anti-corruption campaign aimed mainly at the ruling DMK. In February this year, he compared the criticism leveled at him to the attacks MGR faced when she founded the AIADMK in 1972 and mocked the DMK and other parties for repeating the criticism that he was a political novice. He set the 2026 elections as a contest between the TVK and DMK and the BJP-led parties. While introducing his party candidates, he declared that the fight was between the TVK and the “dangerously corrupt” DMK.
Published – 31 March 2026 23:33 IST
