'The AIADMK will lose a lot of votes simply because it is aligned with the BJP.'

IMAGE: AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami campaigns for the Tamil Nadu assembly elections in Chennai.

Photograph: @EPSTamilNadu.X

Key Points

• 'What Vijay is offering is a politics of no content, and we are looking at a party with no ideology.'
• 'People always vote not by the past, but for the future.'
• 'The BJP made the wrong strategy of travelling on the back of the ADMK for a long time without building the party at the grassroot level.'

Tamil Nadu goes to the polls on Thursday, April 23, 2026.

Other than the known DMK and the AIADMK fronts, there are Vijay's TVK and Seeman's NTK in the fray.

Analysing the four cornered Tamil Nadu election is Dr Ramu Manivannan, former head of the department of politics and public administration, University of Madras.

"The DMK may be facing the election confidently but then there are corruption charges. The DMK is looked at as a party controlled by the family from top to the bottom," Dr Manivannan tells Rediff's Shobha Warrier in part one of a two-part interview.

Is the 2026 electoral field more interesting than earlier elections?

There is no doubt every election holds a certain element of interest, greater relevance and implications.

Here, you have a divided Opposition, the AIADMK, the BJP, Seeman's NTK and Vijay's TVK.

It is a four-cornered contest, and the anti-incumbency votes are going to be shared by all of them.

The 2026 election is, in a way very paradoxical because we used to talk about the incumbency and anti-incumbency factors in Tamil Nadu politics and the role of the Opposition. But we are now talking about whether the Vijay-led TVK is having any impact.

Yes, there's a kind of curiosity about him as after almost 20 years, there is a cinema star coming into politics.

What is paradoxical is what he is offering is a politics of no content, and we are looking at a party with no ideology.

How can any party or leader have an impact in politics without any ideological orientation or without any political work in the state and no future vision?

Many people are talking about him having a big impact in the 2026 election but I think it is not going to have a big impact.

This election is very important in a sense it determines the voters' ability to judge the outcome.

It is not an election of political parties, it is a voters' election.

People have to decide whether Vijay is an alternative to the DMK or the AIADMK which is completely subordinated under the BJP.

IMAGE: Dravid Munnetra Kazagham President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin campaigns for the Tamil Nadu assembly election in Pudukkottai, April 11, 2026. Photograph: @mkstalin X/ANI Photo

The DMK is facing the election confident than any incumbent government. Does that mean there is not much anti-incumbency?

There will always be anti-incumbency. But that's not a dominant sentiment among people that they want to vote the government out of power.

You mean people are satisfied with what the DMK government has done in the last five years?

People are never satisfied with any government's performance.

People always vote not by the past, but for the future. Perhaps the future must be reassuring for the people as the DMK at this moment is more stable and has a more stronger leadership.

Stalin still draws an appeal as a comparatively strong leader, a better leader. The DMK front is a united force to reckon with.

The DMK may be facing the election confidently but then there are corruption charges. The DMK is looked at as a party controlled by the family from top to the bottom. There is also criticism about the amount of wealth accumulated by party people from top to the bottom. Then there is complacency too.

Still, they are facing the election very confidently.

That is because they are able to see the division of anti-DMK votes which is not going in one direction.

IMAGE: BJP leader Kuppusamy Annamalai speaks during a roadshow in support of NDA candidate K C Thirumaran in Tiruppattur, April 12, 2026. Photograph: @annamalai_k X/ANI Photo

'People are not bothered about corruption'

You spoke about corruption. There is a perception that the DMK government was corrupt. Still, if the DMK is voted back to power, does that mean people are not bothered about corruption?