2 months after Karur stampede, Vijay resumes campaign for 2026 poll

Actor-turned politician and Tamilaga Vettri Kazhgam (TVK) chief Vijay on Sunday resumed his campaign for the 2026 Assembly election after a break of nearly two months. Today's event marked Vijay's first public address after the September 27 stampede at Karur.

Without naming the ruling DMK, he accused the party of a 'loot' of Rs 4,730 crore via illegal sand mining. He also levelled the allegation of dynasty politics against it and claimed that the ruling party had forgotten its founder CN Annadurai's diktat of 'go to the people.' Addressing party workers, fans and the public at an auditorium in Kancheepuram district, Vijay, avoiding a direct reference, alleged that DMK's ideology was only to loot.

Asserting that Palar River is the lifeline of Kancheepuram region, he said such a life giving river has been degraded and ruined by those merely using the names of social reformer "Periyar" EV Ramasamy and Anna. He alleged a loot of "Rs 4,730 crore" by way of illegal sand mining, saying 22.70 lakh units of sand was mined by exceeding the permitted level.

"They cannot ask for evidence as it is in court and with the Enforcement Directorate...if sand is looted, water bodies will be destroyed, agriculture will be destroyed and if agriculture is destroyed, farmers will be destroyed. In total, all of us will be completely destroyed. Have you ever heard of a party forming a syndicate to loot?" he asked the audience.

The TVK founder asserted that personally, he and his party had no problem with the DMK though the ruling party may have malice towards them, "but we are not like that at all."

Vijay slammed the DMK for questioning his party, the TVK, over its ideology and asserted that his party was founded on solid ideological standpoints, and it begins with the principle of equality and had, among other things, demanded a caste census.