Home Special Articles Vijay Vs Suryah In Velachery? The Ground Reality Tells A Story

Vijay Vs Suryah In Velachery? The Ground Reality Tells A Story

By
The Commune
-

There is a growing buzz in Tamil Nadu’s political circles that Vijay, founder of Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), is likely to contest the 2026 Assembly election from Velachery. For TVK insiders, the choice is being sold as strategic: a young, urban, tech-heavy constituency close to Vijay’s Panaiyur residence, electorally fluid, and demographically aligned with his fan base.

But on the ground in Velachery, another name has already been circulating for years – SG Suryah. And the contrast between the two could not be sharper.

This is shaping up not merely as a contest of personalities, but as a clash between presence and projection, between street-level politics and stage-managed politics, between someone who shows up when it floods and someone who may show up only when the election calendar demands it.

Velachery: Why Vijay Wants It

Velachery is one of Chennai’s youngest and most fluid urban constituencies, packed with IT employees, mall staff, gig‑economy workers and apartment‑dwellers, with voting patterns far less caste‑anchored than in rural belts. In 2021, Kamal Haasan’s MNM took over 13% of the vote here, well above its state average, showing that an urban, educated electorate is willing to experiment with new entrants. It is also a short drive from Vijay’s Panayur residence, giving him logistical ease and a high‑visibility urban stage if he contests from here.

Within TVK, leaders have openly discussed Velachery as a strategic launchpad: an urban, media‑friendly arena where a Vijay candidature can maximise youth turnout, debutant excitement and national attention, even if the party doesn’t sweep seats statewide. News media touting it as “V for Vijay, V for Vetri, V for Velachery” – seems to capture the way astrology, branding and demographics are being fused to justify this choice.

Suryah’s Record: On The Ground, Year‑Round

While TVK has not yet held a major flagship event in Velachery, SG Suryah has spent the last few years branding himself as the the go-to person in Velachery for the BJP and doing some great NGO work through NaMo Vasavi Foundation in South Chennai.

Examples of constituency‑linked work include:

Continuous fieldwork and door‑to‑door outreach

Connecting with people and creating awareness of PM Modi’s schemes.

Distributing sunshade umbrellas to street vendors and pushcart traders

Distributing umbrellas to those who need it.

Meeting young achievers and ensuring there is no obstruction on their path to success

Ensuring welfare reaches the most deserving

Providing scholarship and college fee assistance to deserving students.

Interacting with the youngsters and encouraging them to play sports

Spreading happiness by distributing Pongal goodies to those who deserve it

More importantly, celebrating the festival with the people.

Now contrast this with Vijay who didn’t even celebrate the Pongal festival with his own cadres!

Suryah also regulary raises issues that are plaguing the public. Here are a few instances:

It’s not enough if you just do welfare work for your constituents. How do you convert them to your voters? That needs constant and consistent efforts to convince people that you are for them no matter what. You need to build a party structure from the bottom up – from the street, to the ward and the larger area. You need to make sure that the people in-charge of the party make voters in their respective booth to vote for BJP.

And 2024 was the election where SG Suryah proved his organizational skills. Across different Assembly seats under South Chennai Lok Sabha constituency, Suryah ensured that BJP came first or second.

In the Velachery Assembly constituency, BJP was the leading party in 80 booths and was at second place in 106 booths.

Velachery’s Reality: Water, Roads, and Relentless Crises

Velachery is not an abstract “urban constituency” defined by polling data alone. It is a lived, stressful geography, one that floods repeatedly, chokes on traffic, struggles with stormwater drains, and oscillates between rapid development and civic neglect.

Every monsoon, Velachery becomes a test of who is actually present. And this is where SG Suryah has quietly built political capital since well before 2024.

During floods, Suryah and his volunteers are routinely seen coordinating relief, arranging food packets, water, medicines, and transport. He does not limit himself to Velachery, he covers a larger part of the Sholinganallur constituency every single time. Here is an example from 2023 floods.

He repeated this in 2024 too, despite not being given a ticket for South Chennai MP constituency that many citizens were expecting.

Here’s an example from 2020 during COVID-19 pandemic.

A bal-Swayamsevak, Suryah has never shied from getting his clothes dirty when it came to doing seva.

Over time, this has created something rare in Chennai politics: recognition without spectacle. People in Velachery may not agree with Suryah on everything, but they know who he is—and more importantly, where he was when things went wrong.

Vijay’s Model: Centralised, Controlled, Distant

Vijay’s political appeal may seem real. His fan base is vast, emotionally invested, and especially strong among youth and first-time voters. TVK’s internal assessments are not wrong in identifying Velachery as fertile ground for a high-profile urban launch.

But the problem is not arithmetic. It is method.

Until now, Vijay’s political functioning has followed a consistent pattern:

Public meetings where he does not go anywhere near the public

Speeches such as in Karur from his van, safely away from the public

Vijay chose to conduct flood-relief activity from the TVK office at Panaiyur on the East Coast Road, rather than visiting inundated neighbourhoods. Affected families were asked to come to the Panaiyur office, where relief materials were distributed.

Vijay even summoned the kith and kin of the Karur stampede deceased and injured to a resort rather than visiting them personally. He did this one month after the incident at a place outside Chennai, not in Karur.

There is little evidence of Vijay walking streets, visiting flood-hit homes, standing knee-deep in water, or engaging unscripted public interaction.

In a constituency like Velachery, that absence is not theoretical. It is noticed. When floods hit and names are remembered, the list is short and Vijay’s is not on it.

Two Ideas of Politics, One Constituency

What Velachery is now witnessing is the collision of two fundamentally different political philosophies:

S G Suryah

Built on repeated micro‑contact: meeting thousands of residents, standing with vendors, distributing umbrellas, hosting cultural and welfare programmes, and using his NGO to entrench a service‑politics ecosystem.

Helps create awareness of BJP’s national schemes and he ensures it reaches people directly.

Treats Velachery/South Chennai not as a launchpad but as a long‑term base, where he will to be seen in both election and off‑season.

Vijay

Built on statewide brand equity, fan clubs, and the promise of a “third force” beyond DMK-AIADMK.

Relies on the idea that Velachery’s urban youth and middle class are ready to vote for a familiar face who speaks their frustration with corruption and status quo politics, even if his physical engagement with their streets has been limited so far.

Treats Velachery as a high‑value stage: win here, and you project viability across Tamil Nadu.

This is not about charisma versus competence. It is about who feels real to voters when the camera is off.

Not a Fan War, But a Political Question

This is not about dismissing Vijay or romanticising Suryah. It is about recognising that political legitimacy is no longer built only on fame.

In today’s Chennai, especially in constituencies like Velachery, legitimacy is built through:

  • Repetition
  • Physical presence
  • Responsiveness
  • Memory

S G Suryah has been building that memory quietly. Vijay has not, yet.

If Vijay truly wants Velachery, he will eventually have to do what cinema stardom has allowed him to avoid: go to the people, not summon them. Until then, the real story in Velachery is not just who might contest, but who has already been there.

Velachery needs someone who hits the ground, mingles shoulder to should with people and is available for them 24×7. It doesn’t need someone one who appears once in a bluemoon, escapes and shut himself in his house at the first sign of trouble.

Subscribe to our channels on Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR