The Script Rajinikanth Never Finished — Vijay Turns It Into Power

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By TRH Op-Ed Desk

Vijay’s first-election victory and ascent to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has reopened old questions about Rajinikanth’s decades of political hesitation. Analysts argue the superstar left an unfinished script that Vijay turned into history.

New Delhi, May 19, 2026 — When actor-turned-politician Vijay swept to power in Tamil Nadu, becoming Chief Minister after his party Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam won a stunning mandate in its very first election, the reverberations were felt far beyond the state’s borders. But perhaps nowhere was the shock more personal than among Tamil cinema’s old guard — Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan — two icons who had flirted with politics for decades yet never fully committed.

“I am not jealous, I am surprised. But not jealous,” Rajinikanth told journalists in Chennai. It was a candid admission that masked something far deeper — the quiet sting of a missed opportunity that had finally, irrevocably, passed him by.

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The 25-Year Hesitation

Political analyst Manish Anand, speaking on The Raisina Hills YouTube channel, did not mince words about what Rajinikanth’s long hesitation had cost him.

“In 2001, there was talk that Rajinikanth would launch his own political party. From 2001 to 2021, every single assembly election in Tamil Nadu was preceded by the same speculation in Tamil media. But the party never came,” Anand noted. “His fans never disappointed him on the cinema screen — they danced, they celebrated, they filled theatres. But the leap into politics never happened.”

The reason, Anand argued, was fear. “He is Tamil Nadu’s biggest superstar. There is no one bigger than Rajinikanth in Tamil Nadu film world. The risk was that if he entered politics and failed, the image he had carefully built over decades would be damaged. He was afraid to take that risk.”

It is a fear that Vijay, 25 years younger, never entertained.

The Script Rajinikanth Left Unfinished

Anand framed Vijay’s rise in strikingly cinematic terms — and deliberately so. “The script that Rajinikanth had left half-written, Vijay picked it up, completed it, and brought it before the people of Tamil Nadu,” Anand said. “He offered an alternative political space. People said — yes, we accept this. We need an alternative political model beyond the DMK alliance and the AIADMK.”

Vijay’s pitch was disarmingly direct: move away from caste-based politics, move away from corrupt politics, and offer Tamil Nadu a clean governance model. The response was historic. First-time voters pressured their parents to vote for Vijay. Children lobbied families. The result — a party barely two years old walking into government — stunned the political establishment.

“When the vote of confidence was called, the Governor gave Vijay just three days to prove his majority. He needed 118 seats. He got the support — including from a faction that broke away from the AIADMK — and proved his majority emphatically,” Anand recounted.

The Politics of Disruption

What made Vijay’s victory particularly significant, Anand explained, was not just the electoral arithmetic but the ideological challenge it posed to decades of entrenched Dravidian politics.

“In Tamil Nadu, where Brahmins constitute barely 3% of the population, neither the DMK nor the AIADMK fields a single Brahmin candidate. Congress and BJP followed the same playbook in 2026. Vijay went against this — he fielded three Brahmin candidates,” Anand pointed out. “This was a direct challenge to the established political conventions of Tamil Nadu.”

Anand also identified the structural weakness that brought the incumbent down. “Tamil Nadu is among the top four states in India for economic growth. Yet the DMK lost. Why? Because high growth masked deep income inequality and social inequity. The politics of freebies — free schemes, free grain — exposed a governance model with serious gaps. Not all of society was participating in the growth story,” added Anand.

Old Stars, New Realities

When journalists asked Rajinikanth directly whether a 2001 party launch would have brought him similar success, his answer was unequivocal: “100%.”

Anand was blunt in his assessment of that claim. “When the birds have already eaten the field, what will you do? 25 years have passed. People say seven years brings transformation — in 25 years, an entire era changes. In 2026, people didn’t want that Rajinikanth. They wanted Vijay.”

As for Kamal Haasan’s declaration that he would give Vijay six months to prove himself — and Rajinikanth’s offer of two years — Anand dismissed both as irrelevant posturing.

“Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan have no authority to set a timeframe on Vijay’s performance. That is the people’s job. The people have given him five years.”

Tamil Nadu, it seems, has found its new leading man — and this time, the role is Chief Minister.

(Based on analysis by Manish Anand on The Raisina Hills YouTube channel.)