Tamil Nadu polls: TVK rules out talks with NDA, says Vijay entered politics to become CM

CHENNAI: Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) on Monday ruled out alliance talks with AIADMK or BJP and said party president Vijay entered politics not to become a deputy chief minister.

TVK chief coordinator K A Sengottaiyan said Vijay had entered politics with the objective of becoming the chief minister and not deputy chief minister, in an apparent reference to reports that he was being offered deputy CM’s post in the AIADMK-NDA alliance after the election.




Sengottaiyan said TVK hadmade it clear that its alliance would be only with those who accepted Vijay as chief minister. People were cheering for Vijay as they once did for former chief ministers M G Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa, he said. Sengottaiyan said TVK had strong candidates who could contest in all 234 assembly constituencies.

TVK joint general secretary C T R Nirmal Kumar too dismissed reports of TVK holding talks with NDA. In a statement on X, he denied having talks with former AIADMK leader V K Sasikala who has floated a new party or PMK founder S Ramadoss. “Reports claiming that BJP, AIADMK, or leaders such as Sasikala and Dr S Ramadoss are engaged in alliance talks with Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam are completely untrue,” he said.

In a related development, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami and BJP state president Nainar Nagenthran hit out at TVK general secretary Aadhav Arjuna for his remarks that actor Rajnikanth “dropped his plans to launch a political party after DMK threatened him”. EPS and Nainar too have rejected reports that they reached out to Vijay for an alliance.

Meanwhile, TVK functionaries said Vijay had interviewed about 60 aspirants and district secretaries have been asked to send shortlisted names for the remaining 170-odd constituencies within two days, an indication that the party was gearing up for a solo contest.