Two months after sharing a platform with actor-politician Vijay and criticizing the ruling DMK as a party of dynasts, former VCK leader Aadhav Arjuna joined Vijay’s Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK). He has been appointed as the general secretary for election campaign management and will play a key role in strategizing Vijay’s activities for the upcoming 2026 assembly elections.

On January 31, Arjuna visited TVK’s party office in Panaiyur, on the outskirts of Chennai, to meet with Vijay and formally join the party. He resigned from the VCK after being suspended by party leader Thol Thirumavalavan for making strong remarks against the DMK, a VCK ally.

According to highly placed sources close to Vijay, Aadhav was roped in after several rounds of deliberations. Sources say he met with Vijay at least a couple of times after the Ambedkar book launch event on December 6th and held detailed discussions. 

On January 29, Arujna met with Vijay at his Panaiyur residence and later the actor expressed “confidence in Arujna and his willingness to rope him in”, said sources. 

Arjuna’s consultancy firm Voice of Commons, will be fully involved in developing TVK’s election strategies for the 2026 elections, by transforming the actor’s fan clubs into a political party and bringing in a robust infrastructure to face the election. 

Though Vijay launched his party on February 2, 2024, he hasn’t appointed office bearers or set up an infrastructure for the party in the past year. It was only a few days before, the party announced that it would have 120 party districts and at least a dozen office bearers for each district. Out of these 120 districts, the office bearers have been appointed for less than 50 districts until now. Most of the office bearers are those who were part of the fan club or the Vijay Makkal Iyakkam and are new to politics. 

In a subsequent statement, the TVK headquarters announced that Arjuna will serve as the general secretary for election campaign management. The statement also clarified that the current leadership structure of the party – with Vijay as president, N. Anand as general secretary, and Jhon Arockiasamy as poll strategist – will remain unchanged. Arjuna and other new members will work in coordination with the existing leadership team.

The statement signed by Vijay said that Arjun will work alongside Jhon Arcokiasamy who has been working with Vijay since 2023, in strategising every political move by actor Vijay. 

Along with Arjuna, CTR Nirmal Kumar who was part of the AIADMK IT wing joined Vijay. Nirmal who was with the BJP till a year before, joined the AIADMK in the run-up to the 2024 parliament polls. 

Recently, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palanisami revamped the party structure and appointed new office bearers for the AIADMK IT wing. Nirmal did not get any prominent position in the party. Nirmal has been one of the popular names on social media as he was running Tamil Nadu BJP’s IT wing and then later with the AIADMK. 

In addition to Arjuna and Nirmal, RajMohan, a well-known social media personality and YouTuber, also joined Vijay.

Meanwhile, members of the TVK party are celebrating the induction of Arjuna and Nirmal, believing that the pair will strengthen the emerging party. However, for a political party still undecided on its political direction and policies, the involvement of an election strategist may not guarantee success.