Appadi podu, podu (Do it that way)…. On May 4, as early leads came in, Tamil Nadu had only one song on its lips, the electric mass anthem from the 2004 superhit Ghilli, starring Vijay and Trisha Krishnan. And why not, since the superstar’s two-year-old party, the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), was looking like it was running away with the election. By the end of the day, Vijay’s TVK emerged as the single largest party with 108 seats, just 10 short of a majority in the 234-member assembly. The verdict disrupted five decades of dominance by the Dravidian majors, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). The result instantly triggered comparisons between Vijay and the late actor and chief minister M.G. Ramachandran (MGR). But it’s early days yet. Suffice it to say that the 2026 election produced one of the most significant realignments of Tamil Nadu’s popular politics in decades.
