'Would take everything from Periyar except...': Tamil superstar Vijay announces TVK's roadmap

Tamil superstar Thalapathy Vijay, known for films like Mersal and The Greatest of All Time, marked a fiery political debut with his rally in Vikravandi town of the Villuppuram district in the state on Sunday. During his speech, Vijay said that his political outfit Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) would embrace the ideology of EV Ramasamy Periyar barring this one thing. 

TVK's launch comes ahead of the 2026 assembly polls in Tamil Nadu. He said that his party was not going to distinguish between Dravidian nationalism and Tamil nationalism. "They are the two eyes of the soil. We shouldn't shrink ourselves to any specific identity."

Asserting independence from the Dravidian movement's rejection of religion, Vijay said that he would take everything from Periyar's ideology except his anti-God stance.

"We won't be taking only one thing that Periyar said -- the anti-God position. We have no stake in a politics that denies God,"  the actor-politician said. Thalapathy Vijay said that Periyar, a proponent of women's literacy, inspired him to work on empowering women. 

EV Ramasamy Periyar continues to be a controversial figure in Tamil Nadu's politics due to his push for Dravidian identity and early support for an independent Dravida Nadu. Not only this, he also promoted atheism and questioned religious rituals, gods and superstitions. 

Even though his actions such as breaking the idols of Hindu gods were aimed at dismantling blind faith, the Hindu community in the southern state was outraged as they saw it as being disrespectful to their beliefs. 

He was also opposed to making Hindi the compulsory language of study in Tamil schools, laying the ground for the anti-Hindi imposition discourse in Tamil Nadu. 

Moreover, Vijay also invoked the legacy of former Tamil Nadu CM K Kamaraj and the chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution Dr BR Ambedkar. Thalapathy Vijay emphasised that the TVK's ideological focus will be on social justice, women's empowerment and secularism.