Joseph Vijay

Chandrasekaran Joseph Vijay, known to audiences simply as Vijay, was born in Chennai to film director S. A. Chandrasekhar and playback singer Shoba Chandrasekhar. He grew up on his father's film sets, acting as a child from 1984, and studied visual communication at Loyola College without finishing the course.

The star

His father cast him in his first lead role in 1992. The early films did poorly, but by the late 1990s he had become a box-office draw, and from Ghilli (2004) onwards he was one of the highest-paid actors in India. Films such as Thuppakki, Mersal, Bigil, Master and Leo are among the highest-grossing in Tamil cinema. Several of his later films carried political themes, including criticism of government policies, which drew objections from BJP leaders at the time.

Long before he entered politics he organised his fan clubs, first as a welfare body, the Vijay Makkal Iyakkam, in 2009. Candidates it backed later won seats in local body elections.

The party

On 2 February 2024 he launched the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, describing it as secular and egalitarian, and said he would quit cinema after his remaining commitments. The TVK contested the 2026 election alone, against both the DMK and the AIADMK alliances.

Seven months before the election, on 27 September 2025, 41 people died in a crush at his rally in Karur. The Supreme Court handed the investigation to the CBI, and he was questioned by the agency in Delhi in January 2026. He has not been charged. The tragedy, and the questions about crowd management and his late arrival at the venue, are part of his record.

Chief Minister

The 23 April 2026 election produced the state's first hung assembly. The TVK won 108 seats with nearly 35% of the vote, ten short of a majority. The DMK fell to 59 seats and M. K. Stalin lost his own seat, Kolathur. The Congress left its alliance with the DMK to join a TVK-led government, other parties offered outside support, and Vijay was sworn in on 10 May 2026. He won a confidence vote three days later.

He won both seats he contested, Perambur and Tiruchirappalli East, and kept Perambur. The defection of six AIADMK MLAs to the TVK in the following weeks drew allegations of horse-trading from opposition parties; two of them won re-election on the TVK ticket in October 2026.

His government is less than six months old, too early for a record to judge.