Tuticorin, 29 Aug

Actor politician Vijay will make an impact in Tamil Nadu Assembly election next year, DMDK general secretary Premalatha Vijayakanth said on Friday.

Indicating that actors may not perform dismally at the hustings as speculated, she said her husband, who founded the DMDK, had contested alone in the 2006 elections and grabbed the state’s attention.

"Captain (as Vijayakanth is fondly addressed) contested alone in 2006 and the rest of us too made a debut in the electoral polls from all 234 seats without being in alliance. Similarly, the entry of Vijay (who heads the TVK party) into the poll fray will have an impact in the 2026 Assembly election," Premalatha told reporters here.

In the election that the Tamil film star Vijayakanth contested, a year after he launched his Desiya Murpokku Dravidar Kazhagam, he alone won from Vriddhachalam constituency while all the other candidates of his party lost.

Later in the 2011 election, Vijayakanth became the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly when the DMDK, in alliance with the AIADMK, swept the polls winning 202 seats. Then, the DMDK won 29 out of 40 seats it contested.

Premalatha was visibly annoyed when a reporter asked about her party’s position on electoral alliance and chided the scribe saying she had already made it clear that her party would announce its stand ahead of the polls.

"There are still eight months for the elections. We have already made it clear that we will announce our stand on alliance at the time of elections. Why do you reporters always ask about alliances and about Vijay? Are there not people’s issues to be discussed?"

Politics, she said, should be to resolve people’s problems, and as a political party, the DMDK was keen on addressing common man’s problems, Premalatha emphasised.