Where actor-turned-politician Vijay will stand from remains one of the most highly-anticipated announcements of the upcoming TN assembly elections.
Now there are increasing indications that the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) leader will contest either from Perambur in North Chennai or Tiruchirappalli (East).
"He would choose either Perambur or Tiruchy East. Both are smaller in size. This would make it easier for him to campaign for his party candidates in other constituencies," a top party leader told The New Indian Express on condition of anonymity.
Vijay had himself dropped a possible hint during a meeting with party aspirants recently by asking them "Shall I come to Perambur frequently?".
The TVK leader has been holding discussions with these aspirants since March 10.
Earlier, at a meeting of TVK cadres on February 22, a resolution was passed urging Vijay to contest from Perambur. According to a report, the campaign management secretary of the party, Aadhav Arjun, was the one who moved it.
TVK general secretary N Anand had been quoted then as saying, "We wholeheartedly accept the resolution moved by Aadhav and will convey your wish to Thalapathy."
Perambur Assembly Constituency
Perambur is an important industrial and residential area in Chennai best known for housing the Integral Coach Factory (ICF).
The constituency also suits Vijay's stated aim of becoming a candidate from a place where he can be seen as fighting for the poor and the downtrodden.
With close to 3 lakh voters, Perambur has a notable Anglo-Indian community. Dalits make up about 24 percent of its population.
It qualifies as a DMK stronghold.
In the 2021 Assembly elections, the DMK retained the seat, with RD Shekar securing victory by a margin of 54,976 votes against AIADMK candidate NR Dhanapalan.
Earlier, in the 2016 elections, when AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa was still alive and at the peak of her election game, the constituency was won by the AIADMK. But the party's candidate P Vetrivel defeated DMK's NR Dhanapalan only by a narrow margin of 519 votes.
From 1996 to 2016, the seat was largely held by the DMK and its ally CPI(M).
Chengai Sivam of the DMK represented the constituency from 1996 to 2001. From 2001 to 2011, K Mahendran of the CPI(M) served as the MLA, followed by A Soundararajan of the CPI(M), who represented the constituency from 2011 to 2016.
Tiruchy East Assembly Constituency
Tiruchy East, which was carved out as a constituency only in 2011, has a little over 2.5 lakh voters.
DMK's Inigo Irudayaraj S had wrested the seat from AIADMK's Vellamandi Natarajan N in the 2021 Assembly elections. Irudayaraj won by a margin of 53797 votes.
Vellamandi Natarajan had won the seat in 2016. Before that, R Manoharan from the AIADMK had won the initial election in 2011 by a margin of 83000 votes.
The constituency has an urban voter base.
About 25% of the voters are from the minority communities with Muslims being the second most dominant community with a 15% vote share. It also has around seven percent of Dalit voters.
Will TVK end up in NDA?
Meanwhile, it has emerged that Vijay is being wooed by the BJP, who are keen on him joining the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). This despite him having gone on the attack against them. It is said that the saffron party believes that if Vijay also comes into the NDA fold, the resultant arithmetic will make the alliance unbeatable.
Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Pawan Kalyan, and a few others are said to have contacted Vijay trying to convince him to join the BJP-AIADMK alliance. But Vijay's political adviser John Arockiasamy is said to be firmly against any such decision.
On Friday, though, the party leadership held a meeting of district secretaries (via video call) to listen to their views about entering into an alliance for the upcoming polls. It is understood that all the district secretaries stated that they will abide by whatever decision the party leadership takes.
These developments come at a time when Vijay's wife Sangeetha has filed a divorce case. The TVK leader had also sought time to appear before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for questioning in the Karur stampede case investigation. The stampede on September 27 during a rally addressed by Vijay had claimed 41 lives.