The recent success of Thalapathy Vijay’s party, TVK, in the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections has sparked a heated “credit war” in neighboring Andhra Pradesh. YSRCP supporters and senior leaders, including former minister Roja, are aggressively trending claims that Vijay’s victory was fueled by the “Jagan image.” They point to Vijay’s perceived alignment with YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s political style—specifically his “single-handed” fight against established giants—as the primary reason for his emergence as the single largest party.
The backbone of this social media campaign is a brief, two-second video clip from a past roadshow where Vijay held up a photo of himself with Jagan, handed to him by a fan. While YSRCP cadres argue this “cut-out” and the inspiration drawn from Jagan’s welfare-centric governance resonated with Tamil voters, critics and neutral observers have labeled these claims as far-fetched. They argue that Vijay’s triumph is a result of his massive personal stardom, years of ground-level cadre building, and a youth-driven desire for a shift away from traditional Dravidian politics, rather than any external influence.
The political irony of the situation has not escaped netizens, who are pointing out a major “U-turn” by YSRCP leaders. During the election campaign, leaders like Roja had actually campaigned in Tamil Nadu for Stalin’s DMK, which was the rival of Vijay’s TVK. Now that the results show a TVK surge and a DMK setback, the sudden pivot to claim credit for Vijay’s win has triggered widespread trolling. Social media users are mocking the attempt to “hijack” a victory that belongs to the people of Tamil Nadu, suggesting that while Vijay did the hard work on the streets, the celebrations are being artificially manufactured in Tadepalli.
