With the 2026 assembly polls barely months away, Tamil Nadu’s political chessboard has sprung a surprise. The fledgling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), launched by matinee-idol-turned-politician Vijay, has pulled off a coup that few saw coming—the induction of K A Sengottaiyan, a veteran expelled from the AIADMK. The 77-year-old Gounder strongman from Gobichettipalayam, a trusted lieutenant of both MGR and J Jayalalithaa, has spent five decades mastering the art of booth-level mobilisation, alliance arithmetic, and Kongu Nadu vote consolidation. For him, the move implies a do-or-die showdown. He has staked his legacy on a party that has not yet fought an election and whose electoral machinery is still embryonic. Scores of AIADMK functionaries and hundreds of grassroots loyalists from western Tamil Nadu have followed him into TVK’s fold.
In return, Vijay has handed him sweeping organisational authority as chief coordinator of TVK’s administrative committee and organising secretary for the western region—Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode, and the Nilgiris—the terrain where the AIADMK, under Edappadi K Palaniswami, once appeared unassailable. TVK rivals will revel in Sengottaiyan’s track record to mock the new party’s ‘clean politics’ slogan. After the AIADMK faced a rout in 1996, several senior ministers faced corruption charges. As the transport minister in the cabinet, Sengottaiyan was convicted in two corruption cases in 2000 and sentenced to jail, disqualifying him from contesting polls. Though he staged a comeback once the legal storm passed, these stories remain etched in public memory.
TVK brands itself the new principal opposition, hoping to inherit the anti-DMK space the AIADMK once monopolised. The ground reality may, however, look more fractured. The AIADMK-BJP alliance, despite internal contradictions, retains organisational depth and a loyal cadre base. The DMK, riding on welfare populism and a disciplined leadership under M K Stalin, appears comfortably placed to exploit the splintering of the anti-incumbency vote. Vijay’s star power is undoubted, but his ability to convert fan clubs into a durable vote bank remains untested. By roping in a Kongu Nadu heavyweight, TVK has signalled it is willing to play the hard game of caste arithmetic and regional balancing. Whether this bold stroke consolidates the Gounder vote behind the new outfit or fragments it further will be one of the defining sub-plots of 2026. Surely, the entry of a battle-scarred veteran into a celebrity-led startup makes the three-cornered contest even more intriguing.