Chennai: Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) chief C Joseph Vijay was sworn in as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister on Sunday, May 10, in a ceremony that felt less like a political event and more like a cultural moment, with thousands of supporters whistling, cheering and waving yellow shawls as their “Thalapathy” became “Muthalamaichar,” ending 60 unbroken years of DMK and AIADMK rule in the Dravidian heartland.
Governor RV Arlekar administered the oath of office to the 51-year-old actor-turned-politician and nine Cabinet members at the packed Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi watching from the dais.
What Vijay’s Cabinet looks like
The ministry was a mix of loyalists and experience. Vijay’s inner circle of TVK leaders Aadhav Arjuna, N Anand, R Nirmal Kumar and KG Arunraj, all took oath as ministers, as did Dravidian veteran KA Sengottaiyan and young faces Dr TK Prabhu and S Keerthana. All ministers took their oath in the name of God, a quiet but pointed departure from the practice of most in the outgoing Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government.
Even the dress code broke from Tamil Nadu’s political tradition. Vijay wore a white shirt, dark trousers and a blazer – no white dhoti in sight – and most of his Cabinet followed suit.
First orders, first words
Straight off the dais, Vijay signed his first orders, which was 200 units of free electricity for domestic consumers, a dedicated force for women’s safety and anti-drug trafficking units across the state.
In his first address as Chief Minister, he said, “A new era of real, secular, social justice starts now,” he said. “There will be no power centres other than me.” He thanked his alliance partners Congress, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and the Left, and made a point of singling out children, saying it was they who had persuaded their families to vote TVK.
He wrapped up the hour-long ceremony by clicking a selfie on stage with Rahul Gandhi and his Cabinet, very much in keeping with the man.
A political rise unlike any other
Vijay floated TVK barely two years before the election and won power at the very first attempt. He did it without holding rallies in the conventional sense, without giving press interviews and without fielding candidates in every constituency. His campaign ran largely through social media and word of mouth. He deliberately targeted teenagers, asking them to bring their parents along — and it worked well enough to topple a ruling party that had governed the state for a decade.
The signs of political ambition had been there for years. His 2013 film “Thalaiva” carried the tagline “Born to Lead,” even as the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) government at the time forced the removal of the tagline before the film could be released in Tamil Nadu. His subsequent films, Kaththi, Mersal and Sarkar, carried increasingly sharp political undercurrents. When his fan organisation won local body elections in 2021 using his photographs, few were still surprised.
A photograph that circulated widely after Sunday’s result said it all. A young Vijay standing behind the late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi, with the caption asking whether the old leader could ever have imagined the boy would one day defeat his own son.
The mood in Chennai
Vijay’s parents, SA Chandrasekhar and Shobha, were visibly overcome. “Vijay will lead this well; I have full faith in him,” his mother said. Actress Trisha attended, as did much of the Tamil film fraternity. Several supporters noted that the ceremony fell on Mother’s Day, calling it a fitting beginning.
Actress Sanam Shetty, speaking to reporters outside, captured the sentiment of many. “The gruelling past week of political shifts hasn’t allowed us to sleep peacefully. Today, we are going to sleep peacefully, dreaming of a better Tamil Nadu,” she said.
Congratulations pour in
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Vijay on X, saying the central government would “keep working with the Tamil Nadu government to improve the lives of people.”
Rahul Gandhi, who attended the ceremony, posted that Tamil Nadu had “chosen a new generation, a new voice, a new imagination.” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge expressed confidence that the ideals defining Tamil Nadu’s political consciousness would guide the new government.
Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy also congratulated Vijay, saying he believed the new CM would “deliver welfare for the poor, justice for all.”
Vijay first appeared on screen as a child artiste in 1984. He made his debut as lead actor in 1992. Few watching that shy, mild-mannered boy could have seen this coming. On Sunday, even the sceptics had to concede – Thalapathy had arrived.
However, Vijay must now prove his majority on the floor of the Assembly before May 13, as directed by the Governor, officially completing the constitutional process of government formation.
