Fan club loyalists get key berths in Vijay-led Tamil Nadu cabinet

Chennai: Sixteen MLAs inducted into the state cabinet — N Anand, Venkatramanan P, T K Prabhu, R Vinoth, B Rajkumar, V Gandhiraj, K Jegadeshwari, M Vijay Balaji, Vijay Tamilan Parthiban, S Ramesh, K Thennarasu, V Sampath Kumar, Mohamed Farvas J, D Sarathkumar, Vignesh K and C Vijayalakshmi — trace their political roots to Vijay fan clubs and Vijay Makkal Iyakkam. TVK founder C Joseph Vijay has rewarded long-time grassroots organisers who built his political network over nearly two decades. Several of them had worked with Vijay from when his fan clubs were largely welfare units conducting blood donation camps, education assistance programmes and flood relief work.
N Anand, a former MLA from Puducherry’s Bussy constituency, joined Vijay in the mid-2000s and went on to head the actor’s fan clubb, before leading Vijay Makkal Iyakkam operations. Party functionaries said the organisational structure built by Anand was the backbone for TVK’s booth committees during the elections. Salem South MLA Vijay Tamilan Parthiban organised a large Vijay Makkal Iyakkam event in 2016, two years after the controversy surrounding Vijay’s film ‘Thalaivaa’, with the turnout prompting similar outreach programmes in other districts. Arakkonam MLA and cooperation minister V Gandhiraj, and Aranthangi MLA and labour welfare minister, Mohamed Farvas J were among among 129 Vijay Makkal Iyakkam functionaries who won in the 2021 local body polls despite the absence of a symbol or direct campaigning by Vijay.
Political observers compared Vijay’s cabinet choices with the approach adopted by Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao after the Telugu Desam Party came to power in the 1983 Andhra Pradesh assembly elections, when leaders such as Nandamuri Harikrishna and Paritala Ravindra, who were associated with his grassroots mobilisation network, went on to become ministers. “Even after senior leaders such as Sengottaiyan joined, Vijay continued to project Anand as his number two,” said R Deepak, a political analyst.