CHENNAI: Putting an end to the speculation of possible alliance with NDA for the April 23 Assembly poll, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) president and actor Vijay on Wednesday clarified that his party will not compromise on the principles of secularism and social justice and will remain firm on the goal to form a government under its leadership in the state.
Addressing an Iftar event at Mamallapuram, Vijay said when other “defamatory attempts” did not succeed, rivals launched a false campaign claiming that TVK would choose the alliance path for the polls. Vijay’s declaration on full commitment to secularism is seen as a clear hint that TVK will not align with the NDA for the Assembly polls.
His remarks came a day after his party general secretary (election campaign management) Aadhav Arjuna said at a public meeting that there were attempts to pull TVK into an alliance with an offer of 90 seats and Chief Minister’s post for 2.5 years. Arjuna, however, did not say who made the offer.
Emphasising that he always belonged to the “people’s team,” Vijay said that ever since the launch of TVK, there have been several rumours stating that he was part of “this team and that team”. “There is no such team and I always belong to the people’s team,” he said.
“You all would have got confused after hearing the news (about alliance). I would like to make it clear once again that we will always stand by our secular principles. We will not compromise on secular, social justice principles of our party. We will lead the alliance and we will lead the government,” he told the people gathered there.
“As we said in our party’s first conference, we will not compromise on our politics. Don’t believe any false propaganda against us. With the blessings of God, we will reach our goal, be confident,” he said.
This is the second year after forming the political party Vijay was in Ramzan fasting and participated in the Iftar feast in the evening.
Vijay’s denial comes days after his party’s district secretaries, in a meeting, suggested that joining an alliance would help defeat the “evil force DMK”.