Marking a stunning political debut, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) chief and actor Vijay won both Perambur and Trichy East in the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections on Monday, May 4. However, the victory comes with a ticking legal clock. He now has 14 days to give up one of the two seats he won.
In Perambur, Vijay defeated the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's (DMK) RD Shekar by 53,715 votes and in Tiruchirapalli (East), the DMK's S Inigo Irudayaraj by 27,416 votes. Both seats underwent 22 rounds of counting.
Shekar had held Perambur since the 2019 by-election and retained it in 2021, Irudayaraj had won Tiruchirapalli (East) in 2021.
However, under Section 70 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, no person can hold two seats in a state legislature simultaneously. Vijay has 14 days to formally declare which seat he intends to retain and which TVK candidate might be given the other seat. If he doesn’t do this within the given time, both seats will be rendered vacant under election rules.
The dual candidacy was a deliberate political strategy — designed to maximise Vijay's chances of entering the Legislative Assembly, widen his party's geographic reach across Chennai and central Tamil Nadu, and guard against a setback in either constituency.
Perambur, an urban seat in the state capital, offers high visibility and proximity to power. Trichy East was chosen to signal TVK's appeal beyond Chennai and to push into what has long been DMK territory in the Delta region. Vijay has not indicated which seat he will retain.
Political analysts note that leaders typically vacate the constituency where their party has a stronger secondary candidate, or where they are more confident of holding the seat in the by-election that would follow. Whichever seat Vijay vacates will trigger a by-election within six months.
TVK's performance has gone far beyond Vijay's personal wins.
The party was leading in 107 seats across the 234-member Assembly, overtaking both the DMK, which was ahead in 60 constituencies, and the AIADMK, leading in 47 — a remarkable result for a party contesting its first-ever Assembly election. Vijay founded TVK on February 2, 2024.
In the 2021 elections, the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance had swept to power with 159 seats, with MK Stalin becoming Chief Minister. The AIADMK-BJP National Democratic Alliance had won 75 seats.