After weeks of speculation, on Wednesday the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) announced that it would form an alliance with the People’s Welfare Alliance (PWA) for the upcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly polls. The PWA has four major parties, namely the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, CPI and CPI (M). The alliance between the DMDK and the PWA has been formed with the understanding that Captain (as Vijayakanth is called) will be the Chief Ministerial candidate. Vijayakanth, the DMDK founder and leader, had been wooed by all the major political parties (including DMK) in the state, but a major bone of contention was his desire to be the Chief Minister or Deputy Chief Minister.
Here are some facts you need to know about actor-turned politician Vijayakanth and his party.
- Vijayakanth (Vijayaraj is his original name) is a Tamil actor who started his movie career in 1979 with the film Inikkum Ilamai. He has acted in about 155 films and still continues in act. His latest film is titled Thamizhan Endru Sol and is directed by Arun Ponnambalam. The actor is referred to as ‘Captain’ after his 1990 film Captain Prabhakaran became a superhit.
- Vijayakanth turned to politics and launched the DMDK on 14 September 2005 at Madurai. Their office in Chennai is in Koyambedu. Since the inception of the party, the DMDK has taken part in two Assembly (2006, 2011) polls and two Lok Sabha (2009, 2014) polls.
- In the 2006 Assembly polls, the DMDK contested 232 seats ad won one seat. But in 2011, DMDK formed an alliance with AIADMK and contested 41 seats and won 29. Vijayakanth became the leader of the opposition in the Tamil Nadu assembly subsequently.
- It was renowned actor and political commentator Cho Ramaswamy who encouraged the DMDK to form the alliance with AIADMK for the 2011 assembly polls.
- Post the 2011 assembly polls, Jayalalithaa and Vijayakanth had strong arguments in the assembly which led to a rift between the two parties and the alliance was broken.
- Vijayakanth formed an alliance with the BJP and non-AIADMK parties for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, but the DMDK did not do well. However, Prime Minister Modi recognised Vijayakanth and he is now recognised in the national politics scene.
- It was on February 22, 2016, that Vijayakanth lost the leader of the opposition status when 8 of his MLAs resigned. The DMDK strength in the assembly fell from 28 to 20 seats.
- Those who have supported Vijayakanth have been a mix of his Telugu-Naidu community, Dalit-Arundhatiyars and large sections of OBCs from central and western Tamil Nadu.
- On the personal front, Vijaykanth married Premalatha in 1990 and they have two sons. He founded the Shri Andal Alagar College of Engineering in 2001 and his wife is the chairman of this college. Captain launched a TV channel in April 2010 called ‘Captain TV’.
- 2016 marks 10 years of Vijayakanth in politics. But there is talk that it his wife Premalatha and brother-in-law LK Sudhish who are the kingmakers. While his wife is considered as the lieutenant, his brother-in-law is seen by outsiders as the man to go through, to reach Vijayakanth.
- Vijayakanth has been the top target for trolls and meme creators during his political career. These make fun of his lack of English proficiency, his goof-ups in public speeches and his appearances at events. In February 2015, Vijayakanth went to meet the Chennai Police Commissioner S George and submitted a complaint asking for action to be taken against those who are creating memes on him.
Here are some memes that went viral on social media:
A meme on his poor English skills
A meme on what the Captain's What's App statuses mean
