The CM drew a pointed contrast between his path to power and that of most political parties. “Most people start a political party first and then go to the people. We went to the people first and only then started our party,” he said. “In the 2026 election, we contested alone without any alliance. Since the people understood us clearly, we secured 35% of the vote. We received 17.2 million votes and emerged as a major independent political force. That is why we are now sitting in government.”

Vijay argued that TVK’s roots stretch back well over a decade, long before the party itself existed. Even as a fan club, he said, the organisation was present at some of Tamil Nadu’s most defining moments, standing in solidarity with Sri Lankan Tamils in 2008, carrying out public welfare drives through 2009, and using his films as a platform to speak out against corruption and champion social justice.

He recalled lending his voice to the cause of fishermen at a public meeting in 2011, joining the Jallikattu protests, and personally visiting the Sterlite demonstration site. The movement also ran scholarship programmes for deserving students and issued public statements opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act.

“After all this, we launched the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam,” Vijay said, making clear that for him, the party was never the beginning of the story, but the point at which years of grassroots work finally found its political form.

Addressing the ideological foundations of his party, Chief Minister Vijay made clear that the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam draws selectively but deliberately from Tamil Nadu’s rich tradition of social reform, taking what it believes in, and setting aside what it does not.

“Periyar’s rejection of religious belief is not something we accepted, but we fully embraced his broader principles,” Vijay said. “We accepted Dr Ambedkar’s ideals of equal opportunity and social justice. We adopted Kamarajar’s model of honest administration as our guiding principle.”

He added that TVK had always been clear-eyed about where it stood politically. “We have always made it clear that we are not opposed to anyone’s ideology. We clearly identified who our political opponents were and who our ideological opponents were,” he said, drawing a deliberate line between those the party disagrees with on policy and those it challenges on principle.

Vijay also pushed back against what he described as unfair blame directed at his administration, citing the deaths of 41 people in Karur as an example of political point-scoring at his expense. “Is this how politics should be conducted?” he asked.

He then placed his government within a lineage of leaders who championed the common man, invoking two of Tamil Nadu’s most beloved figures to make his case. “Just as there was a government of ordinary people under Anna, and a government of very ordinary people under MGR, this government under Vijay is a government of the most ordinary people,” he said, framing his administration not merely as a political outfit, but as the continuation of a people-first tradition stretching back decades.

Tamil Nadu’s three-day Assembly session, which opened on June 18 with Governor Rajendra V. Arlekar’s address, drew to a close amid lively debate, a unanimous resolution on the long-running Cauvery dispute, and pointed exchanges between the ruling alliance and a combative opposition.

The session’s most significant moment came on Friday, when Chief Minister Vijay moved a special resolution opposing Karnataka’s proposed Mekedatu dam project on the Cauvery river. In an unusual show of cross-party agreement, the resolution was passed unanimously after Vijay accepted a suggestion from Opposition Leader Udhayanidhi Stalin to include a demand for the constitution of a new arbitration forum to resolve the inter-state water dispute. Speaker JCD Prabhakar confirmed the amended resolution had cleared the House without dissent.

However, the consensus did not last long. When the Assembly reconvened after a two-day break, the AIADMK and several other opposition parties dug their heels in over precisely that addition, warning that calling for a new arbitration mechanism could open the door to fresh legal complications. They urged the government to drop that portion of the resolution entirely.

The DMK, meanwhile, pressed for a full debate on the deaths of migrant workers following an ammonia gas leak at a private factory in Tiruvallur district. The government chose instead to respond with a limited statement under Rule 110, stopping short of allowing wider discussion, a decision that did not go down well on the opposition benches.

The broader debate on the Motion of Thanks to the Governor’s Address gave opposition parties further opportunity to press the government on a range of issues, including law and order, crimes against women, alleged power outages and the government’s handling of sexual misconduct allegations against certain officials. Questions were also raised over procedural decisions taken by the Assembly during the session.

The opening day had set the tone early, with sharp exchanges between members of the TVK-led ruling alliance and the DMK opposition signalling that, despite the occasional moment of unity, the new government’s honeymoon period in the House was already well and truly over.