Chennai: Actor Vijay’s fledgling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) got a significant boost on Thursday when a nine-time legislator and former AIADMK veteran K A Sengottaiyan, joined the party. He has been appointed chief coordinator of the party’s high-level administrative committee. His entry is expected to give some direction to the party, which is believed to be more of a Vijay’s fans club and disjointed as a political organisation with no clear structural hierarchy.
Sengottaiyan had begun his political career in the AIADMK over a half-a-century ago since the time when actor-politician M G Ramachandran (MGR) floated the party in October 1972. A fierce loyalist of Jayalalithaa, he was best known as her most-efficient election campaign and tour manager. In 1989, when there was a pandemonium in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, then Chief Minister M Karunanidhi had accused Sengottaiyan of assaulting him leading to breakage of his trademark dark glasses. It was during the ensuing pandemonium that Jayalalithaa alleged her saree was pulled by a DMK Minister.
Sengottaiyan, who later went on to become Minister in the Jayalalithaa Cabinet, was a prominent face of the party, though his reach remained confined to his Gobichettipalayam constituency, where he won a record eight elections. He was recently expelled from the AIADMK for rebelling against party leader Edappadi K Palaniswami and calling for unification of expelled leaders. On Wednesday, he had resigned as MLA setting the stage for joining the TVK.
Vijay saw his entry as a development that could help his party considering the long experience that Sengottaiyan brings with him.
Addressing journalists, Sengottaiyan, who still had an image of late Jayalalithaa in his white shirt pocket, said the people will ensure Vijay’s victory in the Assembly elections through a revolution. He cited the victory of the AAP in Delhi and Punjab to justify his confidence in the TVK. Sengottaiyan said he joined Vijay’s party because politics in Tamil Nadu had reached a point where there was no longer any difference between the AIADMK and the ruling DMK.
