Vijay Promises Village Visits, Blames DMK for Restrictions in Tamil Nadu Elections

Chennai: Amid criticism that he was not meeting people enough even in the run up to elections, actor-politicianVijayon Monday made a peculiar promise to the people of Tamil Nadu that he would visit every village and meet them personally once his Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) was voted to power. Experience a more refined e-paper today Vijay, addressing his party functionaries in Vellore, blamed the DMK dispensation for not being able to campaign extensively as he would like to saying Chief Minister M K Stalin’s government was imposing restrictions on his party’s political activities. Like his previous speeches, Vijay did not touch on issues concerning the people in his 17-minute address to his cadres but tore into the DMK on a host of issues including the party framing the assembly elections as the contest between Tamil Nadu versus NDA. “It is actually a fight between DMK and the people of Tamil Nadu. The electoral battle is between this Vijay and Stalin,” the actor said, in yet another attempt to project the election as DMK versus TVK, sidestepping the formidable National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the AIADMK. The actor, for the first time in recent times, also disciplined his cadres by asking them not to follow his vehicle on the way to back to Chennai from Vellore, a four-hour journey. Seeking to equate attacks against him with attacks on Tamil Nadu and its people, Vijay claimed all establishing parties have united to attack him simply because he is against corruption. The TVK chief also continued to flaunt his connection with the people saying he lives in every household in the state, even as he avoided criticising the BJP. “I would like to make one promise to the people of Tamil Nadu from Vellore. The promise is that I will visit every village in the state and meet people personally after TVK forms the government in the state. You don’t know the kind of restrictions imposed on my political activities. I am targeted only because I am the active opposition opposing this government,” he added.