Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK)

The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) is a Tamil Nadu party founded on 2 February 2024 by the film actor C. Joseph Vijay, who is its president. Its headquarters is at Panaiyur, Chennai. Wikipedia says it states its ideology as egalitarianism, secularism and social justice, and its infobox places it centre-left. It has a page here because the two parties it displaced, the DMK and the AIADMK, have pages on this site.

Its leaders: Vijay has led the party since its launch. The sources opened name no other leader.

Its part in this history: Its link to Punjab is indirect. The DMK and AIADMK pages on this site cover state autonomy and a small Tamil Sikh party's criticism of Tamil Nadu's Dravidian parties, and the TVK is the party that took power from them.

Key moments

• 2 February 2024: Vijay launches the party.
• 27 October 2024: its first conference, at Vikravandi, reportedly drew over 800,000 people. Wikipedia reports that Vijay called the BJP an "ideological opponent" and the DMK a "political adversary".
• 27 September 2025: at least 41 people died in a crowd crush at a TVK rally at Karur. Wikipedia notes a later CBI inquiry.
• 23 April 2026: polling in the Tamil Nadu Assembly election. Results came on 4 May. The TVK, contesting 233 seats in its first election, won 108 of 234 with 34.92 per cent of the vote. The DMK won 59, the AIADMK 47, the Congress 5 and the BJP 1. The majority mark was 118, so the Assembly was hung. Turnout was 85.1 per cent, the highest in the state's history.
• 5 to 13 May 2026: M. K. Stalin resigned as Chief Minister on 5 May. The Congress left the DMK-led alliance and joined a TVK government, and four other parties of that alliance backed it without leaving. Vijay was sworn in as Chief Minister on 10 May and his government won the floor test on 13 May.

Where it stands today: The TVK leads Tamil Nadu's government as the largest party without a majority of its own. Wikipedia, citing DT Next, says the Election Commission confirmed its whistle symbol and recognised it as a state party in Tamil Nadu on 10 September 2026.