Tamil Nadu Assembly polls 2026: Vijay writes new political script

Vijay's TVK secured 108 seats with a vote share of nearly 35 per cent.

Actor-politician Vijay flipped the script of Tamil Nadu politics. His newly formed Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam emerged as the single largest party in the 2026 Assembly polls, winning 108 seats in the 234-member House with close to 35 per cent of the votes.

Just five years ago, Tamil Nadu was dominated by the DMK and the AIADMK. In 2021, the DMK secured 37.7 per cent of the vote and formed the government. The AIADMK followed with 33.29 per cent. Together, they commanded over 70 per cent of the votes. That's seven out of every 10 votes. Both parties this time saw a combined erosion of over 25 percentage points. The biggest beneficiary of this bleed was, of course, the TVK.

A part of this shift appears to have come from urban voters. In Chennai, Coimbatore, and Madurai, the TVK won 28 out of 36 seats. The TVK won roughly three seats for every one per cent vote share, compared to about 2.5 for the DMK and around two for the AIADMK.

Record-setting first entry

Vijay announced the TVK in February 2024 and decided to contest all 234 seats without allies. The move paid off with TVK securing 34.9 per cent of the votes, setting a new benchmark for debuts in Tamil Nadu.

Within the state, that number stands out when placed against earlier first-time performances. For instance, MG Ramachandran’s AIADMK got around 30 per cent of the votes in its first election in 1977.

The achievement also outraces other regional debuts elsewhere in the last two decades. The Aam Aadmi Party’s debut in the 2013 Assembly elections in Delhi saw it secure 29.5 per cent of the vote share, while the YSR Congress Party recorded 27.9 per cent in its first election in 2014, held after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

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