With Vijay and his party Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam's (TVK)'s landslide win in the Tamil Nadu assembly elections, the 50-year-old duopoly between the dravidian parties Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) came to an end, indicating a massive shift in the state's political landscape.
The party secured victory in 108 constituencies, emerging as the single largest force in the elections. However, in the Tiruppattur Assembly constituency, its candidate Seenivasa Sethupathy faced a fierce contest against DMK Minister KR Periyakaruppan and ultimately clinched victory by a margin of just one vote—an outcome that reminded many of Vijay’s political action film Sarkar, directed by AR Murugadoss which reaffirmed the belief that every vote counts.
In a striking case of reel life echoing reality, Periyakaruppan—who had held the Tiruppattur Assembly constituency in Sivaganga district as his stronghold for nearly two decades—lost the seat by the narrowest possible margin: just one vote.
The lead kept changing until midnight of the counting day, creating intense suspense. When the last four EVMs were being counted, tension peaked. After counting the first machine, Periyakaruppan was ahead by 127 votes. In the next, Srinivasa Sethupathi led by 157 votes. At the end of the penultimate round, Periyakaruppan again led by 30 votes.
However, the final round brought a stunning turnaround, with election officials declaring his closest rival, Seenivasa Sethupathy of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), as the winner. Sethupathy secured 83,365 votes, edging past Periyakaruppan, who polled 83,364 votes.
In Sarkar, Vijay plays a powerful corporate figure who returns to Tamil Nadu from the United States to exercise his right to vote in the Assembly elections, only to discover that his vote has already been fraudulently used. Shocked by this, he launches a campaign exposing electoral malpractice and eventually enters the political arena as an independent candidate, all while facing repeated threats to his life and efforts to discredit him.
Fans are already having a Sarkar deja-vu moment as Vijay has become the chief minister-elect of the state as the film showed how a person from a non-political background shakes up the top brass of the state government and comes to power through sheer public support. With this incident, the parallels between reel and real life have only grown stronger, leaving fans surprised at how closely reality appears to be echoing the film’s storyline.
While TVK won 108 seats, the party fell short of the magic number—the halfway mark in the 234-member house. The party is currently looking for post-poll allies to form the government with MLAs making a beeline to the party office in Chennai to discuss crucial details regarding the same. Sitting Chief Minister MK Stalin has submitted his resignation to the Governor. Reportedly, Vijay has requested the Governor two weeks' time to make necessary arrangements to make decisions regarding the coalition and cabinet allocation.
