From Superstar to CM? Rajinikanth Makes His Debut as a Politician

2024

Following in the footsteps of movie stars who become politicians, Vijay, the highest paid actor at the moment with a massive fan base, has entered mainstream politics. With the introduction of his party, Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (Tamil Nadu Triumph Federation), the actor made his political debut on February 2, 2024, eliminating any and all uncertainty. This essay tries to trace preparedness of the actor for his political journey. It attempts to analyse whether an actor's large fan base is sufficient for them to succeed in politics. This article examines actor Vijay's political actions both on and off screen in an attempt to predict how successful the actor will be in Tamil Nadu politics. Actor appears to be taking progressive politics seriously in a three-page formal statement that opens with the party's slogan, "Pirapokkum Ella Uyirkkum" from Thirukkural, which roughly translates to "All are equal by birth." However, will he be able to create an ideology that will rival Tamil Nadu's deeply ingrained Dravidian ideology?

IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 2014

Since 2013, there have been apparent changes in the Indian political structure calling for a maternal dependence of the political leaders on the larger society for their sustenance. People have become aware of the power of and in, their vote. The credit of verstehen-driven politics goes to ArvindKejriwal, the leader of a newly formed political party, AAP. This paper, offers an insight into his leadership and the associated party politics which shall leave its imprints on the upcoming LokSabha elections in India.

This article on Tamil nationalist politics makes clear that crises of legitimacy and credibility after the January 8th election is not a factor that is limited to politics in the South. Article argues, the victory of the Yahapalana coalition has unexpectedly exacerbated the gap between the priorities of the major Tamil political parties and the needs of the Tamil people in the North.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2020

This paper attempts to revisit the populist politics of Tamil Nadu. Tamil politics in India has an enduring characteristic of a sub-nationalist orientation which, sometimes, bares with the populist mobilization by the political parties of Tamil Nadu. Recently, the working president of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), one of the prominent political parties of Tamil Nadu, recycles the issue of Dravida Nadu, a hypothetical land for the Tamils own based on their ethnonational identity, which had been dropped almost fifty-five years ago. Dravida Nadu highlights the linguistic, cultural and ethnonational resistance against north-India dominated pan-Indian nationalism. Cauvery water dispute, debate over jallikattu, anti-Hindi stance, and protest against the terms of reference of the Fifteenth Finance Commission are the signs of anticentre campaign in Tamil politics. These are being used not only for safeguarding the Tamil cultural nationalism but for mobilizing the people in electoral combat zone in Tamil Nadu.

INDIA REVIEW

Leadership as a subject has remained under-researched in academic writings on Indian politics.1 This has been inexplicable, as modern India has had an impressive array of political leaders both at the national and state level.2 While India had many outstanding “national leaders” leading the anti-colonial movement, there has never been a dearth of successful leaders, even as India has emerged as a vibrant electoral democracy in terms of both political participation and contestation. India has been witness to 16 Lok Sabha elections and over 350 state assembly elections, not to mention countless local government elections that have taken place, especially after the implementation of the seventy-third and seventy-fourth amendment in 1993.3 Being hailed as the “widening” and “deepening” democracy that India has become in the last three decades, the enormous size and vast scale of social and cultural identities in India have also contributed to the presence of “many more political leaders than other countries-leaders who have won and lost elections, run and mis- run governments, and exercised the political imagination of their constituents in myriad other ways.”4 Even a cursory look at the select list shows that it is comprised of not only the national leaders but also the leaders who remained confined to a particular state and, yet, could play a significant role in their respective political arena and beyond.5 CONTACT Ashutosh Kumar © 2019 Taylor & Francis ABSTRACT Possible explanations are discussed in this article for the paucity of studies regarding political leadership, especially at the state level, in a well-functioning electoral democracy such as India with many parties and leaders. The article argues that such studies can be useful in making sense of the political and economic changes/shifts and developments of a particular state over a period that may have national impact. The article further argues that there has been a perceptible shift not only in terms of social composition but also in the “language” of politics used by the emergent generation of political leaders cutting across the party lines. The change has coincided with the rise of state-level parties and leaders in the post-Congress era followed by the ascendance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Economic and Political Weekly, 2024

The 2024 Indian general elections marked a significant shift in Tamil Nadu’s political landscape. Although the Bharatiya Janata Party, failed to win any seats in the state, it achieved a notable 18.31% vote share and secured second place in 12 constituencies. This article explores the BJP’s relative success and the decline of the Dravidian parties’ combined vote share to 47.39%. It examines whether this indicates the erosion of Dravidian hegemony and the emergence of a “Hindu vote bank.” By analysing election results and party strategies, the study provides insights into the evolving political dynamics in Tamil Nadu.

2021

In 1999, the largest Dalit movement organization in Tamil Nadu abandoned a decade-long boycott of elections and entered party politics as the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (Liberation Panther Party, VCK). The focus of this article will be on the processes of institutionalization both into political institutions and into socio-cultural ways of doing politics. It will chart both how the party has changed as a result of entering formal politics, and the ways in which it has managed to change the institutions it entered. Looking at institutionalization in this way problematizes the usual focus on a party's electoral success or failure and compels us to analyze their political performance within its specific context. I show how institutionalization in Tamil Nadu has taken particular forms which have some benefits for VCK supporters, while also creating a rift between the party and its core support.

In this article, I explore the production of political images in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The state is known for the ubiquitous presence of banners, murals and posters in its public spaces, featuring prominent politicians and actors. It is commonly argued that these images help to convey the heroic or exclusive status of political leaders. However, such images are actually produced by party workers and therefore do not simply transpose status and image. Instead, political supporters praise their leader via these images and act as ‘kingmakers’ in constructing reputation and power. Simultaneously, by putting political images on display, supporters also authorise their own power. While praise is important in showing a person's dedication to a political party, the images, in the motivations of their producers, are suffused with ambivalence and competition as well. Hence, I argue, political image practices are not representative of politics, they are politics.