By now, Vijay, one of India’s biggest movie stars, must be used to topping the charts on Google Trends. Such is his bond with the search engine that he even sang a song called “Google Google” in 2012, which was a mega-hit.
However, a Google trend today might make him scratch his head. On the day he and his party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), are rewriting Tamil Nadu’s political history, people are asking: “Whose party is TVK?”
Around 3 pm on counting day, May 4, the TVK was leading in over a hundred seats, far ahead of the state’s two most dominant outfits, the incumbent DMK and the AIADMK (both hovering around fifty seats).
That Vijay’s name is at the top of Google Trends today is hardly surprising. But the kind of questions people are asking Google is amusing, to say the least. It looks like some people — outside his massive fan following as a film star — have just realised that he’s now also a political heavyweight.
Amid counting, more people were searching for the TVK on Google than for the Trinamool Congress or even the Bharatiya Janata Party.
In fact, around noon, “TVK party” emerged as the top-most searched term on Google. More than two lakh people searched for “TVK party is BJP or Congress”.
Clearly, they haven’t been tracking the rise of Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar. Funnily, people also searched for his party’s name on Google, with questions like “TVK which party?” and “TVK kiski party hai?”.
Vijay, called “thalapathy” or “commander” by his millions of adoring fans, founded the TVK in 2024 — though this wasn’t his first foray into politics. The All India Thalapathy Vijay Makkal Iyakkam, his fans’ association, contested the local body elections in Tamil Nadu in October 2021 and reportedly won 115 of the 169 seats it contested.
The TVK’s performance in this Assembly election is a stunning debut. Though it isn’t out of the blue. An Axis My India exit poll projected a dramatic 98–120 seats for the party in the 234-member Assembly.
As Vijay is set to dominate TN politics, people are also keen to find out what’s happening in Vijay’s personal life. Many search queries were about who his wife is.
Vijay’s wife, Sangeetha Sornalingam, filed for divorce in a Tamil Nadu court in February this year after 26 years of marriage. She accused Vijay of adultery. As per reports, Sangeetha is a Sri Lankan Tamil who was born and brought up in the UK.
When Vijay sang “Google Google” in 2012, it was a return to form in his singing career. Today’s Google Trends marks a new beginning for him — this time as the Thalapathy in Tamil Nadu’s political arena.
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