Vijay’s appointment of Radhan Pandit tells stars were always over Dravidam

On May 12, 2026, two days after Tamil Nadu's newest Chief Minister took oath — a government order quietly emerged from the secretariat. Office Proceedings No. 675, signed by Principal Secretary Reeta Harish Thakkar, announced that Thiru Rickey Radhan Pandit Vettrivel was being appointed Officer on Special Duty (Political) to Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay. The man being handed an official government post was not a bureaucrat or a policy hand: he was an astrologer.

The man who called the election

So who is Rickey Radhan Pandit Vettrivel? With over four decades in Vedic astrology, numerology, and what he calls "meditation-based guidance", he is one of India's most sought-after political astrologers, his clients spanning the BJP, Congress, DMK, and AIADMK. Originally known as Pandit Vettrivel, he moved to Delhi in 2008 and rebranded as Radhan Pandit, building a national profile through years of quiet counsel to politicians who publicly mocked the very idea of consulting one.

Also Read: Why Tamil Nadu’s new coalition government is standing on thin ice

His connection to Vijay began well before the 2026 elections. In a widely circulated 2024 YouTube video, he declared that Vijay's horoscope carried extraordinary "tsunami-like" strength for political success. He predicted a dominant victory and flagged the very name "Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam" as numerologically aligned with Vijay's birth details. TVK, he suggested, was not just a party name: it was a cosmically correct one.

His influence extended to the mechanics of power itself. Vijay had initially scheduled his oath-taking ceremony for May 10 at 3:45 pm. Reports claim that the time was shifted to 10 am on Radhan Pandit's advice, citing an auspicious muhurat. The OSD appointment formalised what had long been evident: Radhan Pandit was more than just a well-wisher.

Periyar's children and private horoscope

To understand the dissonance this triggers in the political discourse in Tamil Nadu, one must recall what the Dravidian movement was supposed to stand for.

Periyar built the Self-Respect Movement on an uncompromising foundation: reason over ritual, science over scripture. Astrology, in his telling, was not a cultural habit, it was a tool of Brahminical hegemony. They passed resolutions condemning superstition. The rhetoric was consistent, proud, but many practices of even the Dravidain parties cast doubt on whether all of it was only for a public image.

Because go back through the DMK's history and you will find not a party that abandoned astrology, but one that learned to conduct it offstage. Their functions were always held on time which is to say, at auspicious times. Groundbreaking ceremonies, campaign launches, office inaugurations, none fell at hours that any half-competent astrologer would flag as inauspicious. Political insiders have for years spoken of a parallel circuit of astrologers who quietly advised Dravidian leaders on timings and decisions. They simply never got government jobs.

Yellow cloth and Tanjore temple

No examination of this tradition is complete without Karunanidhi's melthundu. For six decades of public life, the DMK patriarch, the man who translated Periyar's rationalism into electoral dominance, was never seen without his yellow shoulder cloth. It became iconography. Caricaturists needed only the yellow shawl and dark glasses, and the figure was instantly recognisable.

The official explanation was cultural, a nod to the colour's associations with knowledge and prosperity. But another explanation has circulated among Tamil political observers for just as long: that yellow was Karunanidhi's numerologically prescribed colour. That his name and birth date, rendered through numerological systems, traced back to numbers associated with Mercury and, by extension, with yellow. That the melthundu was not a style statement but a daily, lifelong act of numerological compliance by a man who publicly rejected the very system that prescribed it. Karunanidhi never confirmed this.

Also Read: Why Vijay's TVK win doesn't mark the end of Dravidian politics in TN

Then there is also the story of Karunanidhi entering Tanjore's Brihadeeswara temple through the side entrance, avoiding the main gate, which was considered to bring bad luck for rulers. The superstition has a backstory that dates back to 1984. Then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had visited the temple and a few weeks after the visit, she was assassinated by her own body guards.

Another story is about how MG Ramachandran aka MGR, whose path Vijay has been emulating, fell seriously sick with a kidney problem after visiting the temple the same year Indira Gandhi was killed. MGR recovered from the illness but died in 1987, just three years after his visit even while he was the chief minister of the state.

A report published in Hindustan Times on September 28, 2010, cites political analyst Cho Ramaswamy commenting on Karunanidhi avoiding the main entrance. According to the report, Cho, who wasn’t surprised by the act, said, “He (Karunanidhi) is masquerading as an atheist … he follows the advice of astrologers on auspicious timing … if he has worn a white angavastram (upper cloth) instead of the usual yellow, it must be on someone’s advice that its use would ward off evil.”

Jayalalithaa and her ‘a’

Jayalalithaa's relationship with the occult was, if anything, more elaborate — and the thread leads directly back to Radhan Pandit himself. He was Jayalalithaa's adviser around 1989–1990 and is said to have accurately predicted her 1991 electoral success. He reportedly guided her through several challenging periods, including warnings about the 1996 elections, court cases, and the selection of party candidates.

Also Read: Stage set for Udhayanidhi Stalin vs Vijay? Early signs say so

His influence extended even into branding: he advised on business decisions such as the naming of Jaya TV, and recommended numerological adjustments to Jayalalithaa's name itself — including the addition of another 'a'. That final 'a' — the silent, invisible addition to a name already known across Tamil Nadu — is perhaps the most telling detail of all. Here was one of India's most powerful and imperious politicians, quietly appending a letter to her own identity on an astrologer's instruction

What Vijay did differently

Vijay's appointment of Radhan Pandit is not a complete departure from Dravidian political culture. Previous leaders are said to have maintained deniability. But Vijay has simply removed the deniability. The astrologer is now on the government payroll, with an official designation and a signed order to prove it.

TVK did not emerge from the Periyarist tradition the way the DMK did. Vijay is a film star-turned-politician, drawing on a different kind ofpopulism, unburdened by the ideological genealogy that required his predecessors to at least pretend. In that sense, this is not hypocrisy. It is simply unfiltered.

However, with a few precedents, it has to be noted that the astrologer was always in the room in Tamil Nadu politics. He just never had a name plate on the door. Now, he has.