On May 4, former Tamil film actor C. Joseph Vijay and his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) emerged in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections as the single largest party. The magnitude of the victory was widely unexpected, and dislodged the Dravidian duopoly in the State since 1959. While the reasons for this win are still falling in place — a need for change and reform and fatigue with corruption seem to have been decisive forces — it also appears more than a few voters expected the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) to win even as they wished to shrink the size of its majority, to send a message of sorts. Eventually, of course, the TVK won, securing 108 seats in the 234-seat Assembly and with almost 35% of the vote share. A rational choice While the complete political psychology of Mr. Vijay’s win is still developing, we know the TVK did subtract more from the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam vote base. The erstwhile actor also had many vocal supporters, especially among the State’s…
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