To stem 'Vijay effect', rattled TN parties rush to woo young voters

Actor Vijay's grand entry into politics seems to have stirred up the well-established political parties in Tamil Nadu. 

The challenge posed by Vijay and his party, the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, has political parties in the state rushing around, trying to rein in their youth members to ensure they don't stray from the fold. They are also working extra hard to scale up their youth engagement.

Also, the Dravidian majors, the DMK and AIADMK, the state's dominant parties, are vying to attract youth voters, organising exclusive events and enhancing their IT wing activities to appeal to the tech-savvy younger generation.

According to data on electors for the 2024 Lok Sabha election, voters below 39 years accounted for about 40 per cent of the 6.23 crore total number of electors in Tamil Nadu.

What's worrying the old warhorses in the state is that with a new political force, the youth electorate has a new option on the ballot paper.

According to political commentators, it is not just Naam Tamilar Katchi leader Seeman who has expressed his frustration in public meetings about youths defecting from his party to Vijay’s TVK. Other political parties are also taking the actor’s appeal to young voters very seriously.

Many events are now being planned with an eye on the youth electorate. While the DMK has planned a big birthday bash for Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin on November 27 to whip up interest among the youth, AIADMK leader Edappadi K Palaniswamy has decided to focus more on building up Ilaignar Pasarai, the youth wings for men and women in the party, and the party's IT wing.

Besides starting off organising cricket matches, bike races, and oratory competitions which were all held last month, DMK youth wing members have also been involved in distributing saplings, providing free books for competitive exams to graduates, and arranging a blood donation camp on Udhayanidhi Stalin’s birthday.

Tiruppur district youth wing of DMK will be planting a number of saplings to match Udhayanidhi’s age in each zone, while the Madurai wing will distribute sarees and provide stationery aids to students.

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A DMK IT wing functionary told The Federal that a hashtag with Udhayanidhi’s birthday message will be retweeted by all DMK cadres.

“Till last year, we had posted only DMK leader Stalin’s birthday photos and events related to his birthday on our official handles in a big way. This year, the IT wing will post special albums of Udhayanidhi and also plans to ensure his birthday message trends on Twitter," he said.

Further, the functionary pointed out, the gathering of youth wing leaders at Anbagam office will not be a small event this time.

Meanwhile, Udhayanidhi has also called for posting youth wing leaders at the village panchayat level to promote enrollment and prevent Tamil Nadu youth from joining TVK.

“Udhayanidhi has been accepted by both senior and junio rleaders. He has realised the need to involve youth in booth-level committees. When we have youth at the panchayat level, it will deter TVK from attracting first-time voters on a large scale,” a youth wing functionary explained.

The AIADMK camp too seems to drumming up plans to stem the Vijay effect.

The party is actually working hard to prevent youngsters from jumping ship to TVK. During a recent meeting at the AIADMK headquarters in Royapettah, senior leaders raised the subject with EPS on countering Vijay’s impact on the youth vote bank.

When asked about Vijay’s party cutting into the AIADMK party cadre, former minister and senior AIADMK leader Jayakumar said their party’s vote bank remains intact.

"Young men and women who benefitted from many AIADMK schemes will not vote for others," he said.

Further, attacking the DMK, he said, "Many youth realise that it was the DMK that stopped the Amma two-wheeler scheme, which enabled many young women to get a two-wheeler at a subsidised cost. They also stopped Thaliku Thangam — the eight-gram gold coin scheme for young women from economically weaker sections. Many young men and women are upset about DMK’s decisions. They will not consider others."

Notably, he refrained from criticising or commenting on the Vijay factor.

Another AIADMK functionary told The Federal that senior leaders have already discussed the urgent need to reorganise the youth wings of the party.

“We are aware that Vijay’s focus on first-time voters and youth will affect us. Though he did not criticise AIADMK, his target is to take away youth votes from AIADMK and NTK,’’ he said.

Explaining about improving the social media presence of AIADMK he said, "While the DMK IT wing has 308.9K followers and TVK Vijay has432.8K followers, AIADMK has only 149.2K followers. We want to improve our performance on social platforms too. A month ago, IT wing members had an exclusive interactive session with general secretary Edappadi Palaniswamy. We had a free-wheeling chat, in which he told us that inclusion of youth under 40 years should be given priority. This is a new beginning in the party because seniors realised the necessity of youth vote bank after Vijay’s entry."

Apart from the Dravidian majors, the Tamil Nadu unit of the Congress party has also now been taking initiatives to reach out to the rural youth. It can be recalled that MP and outspoken Congress leader Karti Chidambaram made several statements about how the party is viewed as one dominated by elders, and his party is trying hard to enroll the youth.

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He said in a speech that went viral, “Tamil Nadu Congress not only has to retain its voter base but also attract new people into the party, especially young voters. Youngsters are not attracted to the Congress party and are rather opting for Seeman’s Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) and even the party launched by actor Vijay." 

A week ago, the Congress party reorganised village-level committees across the state, and the first such meeting was held at Edappadi. Senior TNCC leaders in the meeting impressed on the members that the party has to be inclusive and attractive.

Meanwhile, talking to The Federal, political commentator R Bhagwan Singh agreed that Vijay's debut has rattled the political parties, big and small, in the state. According to Singh, all the major parties in the state are actively focussing on working out ways to retain their youth vote bank.

For in his view, Vijay’s TVK will corner a major chunk of youth votes and first-time voters. He is all set to disrupt the political scene as the smaller ones, like Naam Tamilar Katchi, will be scared that whatever little support they have from the youth may now disappear into Vijay’s pockets, he added.

"And the larger ones, such as ruling DMK and the main opposition AIADMK, are obviously worried about the impact the star's celluloid draw would have on their vote banks, particularly the young voters. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen how Vijay will handle the socio-political challenges in the coming months,” he pointed out.

Since Vijay is an untested horse on the Tamil political turf and carries no burden of corruption charges, his party will be considered by voters who do not want to vote for either DMK or AIADMK but are looking for a new alternative.

“When MGR rebelled against Karunanidhi and launched his own AIADMK with his massive fan base, it was his biggest political asset. His fan base turned into a hardcore AIADMK vote bank. Whether Vijay will repeat MGR’s political jubilee in the social media era has to be seen in the 2026 polls," he said, adding that the youth vote bank can be split between TVK and NTK.

"That division would not be an advantage for any party,” he added.

Truly, for now, Vijay's entry has indeed shaken up the political parties in the state who seem to be frantically running around to keep their young flock in the pen.