Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) appears to be taking its political branding beyond Tamil Nadu, with reports claiming that the party is spending around ₹5 crore every month on social media reels aimed at projecting Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay as a national political leader, as per a Junior Vikatan report.
The reported expenditure comes at a time when senior TVK ministers and leaders have increasingly begun portraying Vijay as a potential future Prime Minister, even as the party remains part of an alliance that includes the Congress, which has been pushing for Rahul Gandhi to lead its national political campaign.
₹5 Crore A Month For Vijay Reels?
According to a report in Junior Vikatan, the “Vijay for Prime Minister” narrative is not simply the result of enthusiastic statements by party functionaries. The report claims that it is being deliberately built through a large-scale social media campaign.
The campaign extends well beyond Tamil Nadu.
Political observers cited in the report claim that influencers from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand are being used to produce and circulate short-form videos promoting Vijay and his administration.
The reported expenditure for these reels is ₹5 crore every month, amounting to approximately ₹60 crore a year. A senior TVK minister is allegedly overseeing the campaign.
If accurate, the figure raises questions about the scale of resources being deployed by the party to build Vijay’s national political image.
From CM Vijay To ‘PM Vijay’
The reported social media campaign also comes amid increasingly explicit statements from TVK leaders about Vijay’s national ambitions.
TVK minister Aadhav Arjuna recently spoke about the need for a future Prime Minister to emerge from Tamil Nadu. His remarks were seen as an attempt to position Vijay for a larger national role.
Senior minister Sengottaiyan subsequently said Vijay had the ability not merely to rule Tamil Nadu but eventually the country.
Minister Jegatheeswari went even further, declaring that there was “no doubt” that the present Chief Minister would become the Prime Minister in the future.
Fisheries Minister Srinath also suggested that Vijay would command the same attention in Delhi that he currently enjoys in Tamil Nadu.
Former MLA Isakki Subbiah, who recently joined TVK, similarly described Vijay as the future Prime Minister of India.
The messaging from the party and the reported social media campaign therefore appear to be moving in the same direction: building Vijay from a Tamil Nadu Chief Minister into a national political figure.
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Viral Reels, Questionable Claims
We at The Commune have been reporting about this for a while now. Right from Instagram posts beyond Tamil Nadu with fake claims about Joseph Vijay to reels posted by paid influencers positioning Vijay as the next PM, there is everything.
The campaign relies heavily on influencers from northern states to create a favourable image of Vijay among audiences outside Tamil Nadu.
The videos make a series of sweeping claims about Vijay’s government.
Some claim that Vijay approached the High Court to stop cow slaughter and is therefore a “protector of cows”; that he ordered the death penalty for those who sexually harass women; that he ordered temple hundials to be removed and replaced with hundials in schools and colleges to fund improvements; and that women are being protected through drones deployed under the government’s “Singappen” initiative.
Several of these claims are factually untrue, yet the videos are reportedly attracting millions of views.
One video featuring a woman calling Vijay a “real hero” rather than merely a “reel hero” has allegedly crossed 1.4 crore views.
₹60 Crore A Year On Political Image-Building?
The reported spending is significant because this is not merely conventional government publicity.
The strategy involves paying or engaging social media influencers across several states to repeatedly present Vijay as a highly successful, decisive and nationally relevant leader.
If the reported ₹5 crore monthly expenditure is accurate, TVK could be spending about ₹60 crore every year on this single image-building exercise.
That raises a basic political question: why does Vijay need such an expensive, influencer-driven campaign to establish his credentials outside Tamil Nadu?
A leader seeking national relevance would ordinarily be expected to build that stature through governance, policy, political alliances and a demonstrated record of public service.
Instead, TVK appears to be investing heavily in creating a “Vijay for PM” perception through reels, some of which allegedly rely on claims that do not stand up to factual scrutiny.
Building A PM Image Before Even Expanding Nationally
The timing is particularly notable.
Vijay is still in the early phase of his tenure as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, yet his ministers are already talking about him as a future Prime Minister while a reportedly well-funded social media operation works to introduce that image to voters in other states.
The question is not simply whether Vijay can aspire to national politics.
It is whether viral videos, influencer campaigns and a reported ₹5 crore monthly publicity budget can manufacture national leadership or merely manufacture the appearance of it.
For a party that entered politics promising a new alternative, the reported scale of spending on political image-building deserves far greater public scrutiny.
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