His incoherent speech and fetish to abuse his partymen are legendary by now, but Vijayakant would have never imagined that the ship that he captains would sink so low that he himself would get drow-ned in the sea of politics.
Known as “Captain” for his brave roles in reel life, the actor-turned-politician would have realised on Thursday that star power cannot always win an election. He was lucky in 2006 when he entered the electoral fray for the first time from Virudachalam in Vilupuram district as people may have elected him going just by his stellar, larger-than-life performance in films either as a hero cop or an uber-honest reformer of society.
In the next elections that he contested in 2011, the actor survived to emerge victorious in neighbouring Rishivandiyam largely because of the strength of his being in the alliance with the AIADMK and the Left. But, the greed to steer the ship all alone with an eye on the state’s top job of chief minister sees him marooned now, exactly 10 years after the people of Tamil Nadu gave him an opportunity to emerge as an alternative to the DMK and AIADMK.
The humiliation was complete when Mr Vijayakanth forfeited his deposit from Ulundurpet, where he campaigned for five days not only as DMDK leader but also as the CM candidate of the DMDK-PWA-TMC alliance, a self-declared alternative to the Dravidian parties.
Far from the tall claims of emerging as a credible alternative to the Dravid-ian majors, the “Captain” has only scored a self-goal by joining a coalition of so-called like-minded parties just on the eve of the polls.
The alliance ended a cropper even if it may have acted as a spoiler for one or the other of the Dravidian majors in poll arithmetic.
With his 10-year political journey from a significant high of 10 per cent vote share in 2006 to a mere 2.4 per cent in 2016, the Captain may have ensured people look upon him as a villain rather than a hero. His performance in the Assembly, first as an MLA and later as Opposition leader, only reinforced in people’s minds the mistake they made while pressing the EVM button in his favour.
Attracting crowds would win seats is what the Captain may have believed. He even declared he would be sworn in as chief minister in Madurai, far away from Chennai. Far from taking it as a serious statement by a southern political leader, it became more popular as a joke that was panned on the social media.
Now that the DMDK has fallen flat, the actor has lost his bargaining power completely and might have to shut shop or knock at the doors of 11, Ashoka Road, the BJP headquarters, to take him back in the NDA fold.
