Not Just Votes, Searches Too: Vijay and His Party TVK See Massive Online Interest; What Did People Google?

Actor Vijay's political party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), is rewriting Tamil Nadu's political history with a massive lead in the elections. Despite his and the party's success, Google Trends revealed widespread confusion, with many searching "Whose party is TVK?" and questioning its affiliations.

One of the biggest movie stars in India, Vijay, must be accustomed to leading Google Trends by now. He also recorded the mega-hit song "Google Google" in 2012, demonstrating how close he is to the search engine. He might be perplexed by a current Google trend, though. People are wondering, "Whose party is TVK?" on the day he and his party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), are rewriting Tamil Nadu's political history.

According to media reports, the incumbent DMK and the AIADMK, the two most powerful parties in the state, were both hanging around fifty seats at 3 p.m. on May 4, counting day, while the TVK was leading by more than a hundred seats.

It should come as no surprise that Vijay's name was currently at the top of Google Trends. However, the enquiries that individuals were posing to Google are, to put it mildly, humorous. Outside of his enormous fan base as a movie star, it appears that some people had only recently recognised that he is now a powerful political figure.

Reports further suggest, during the counting, more individuals were using Google to look up the TVK than the Bharatiya Janata Party or the Trinamool Congress. In fact, "TVK party" became the most popular Google search keyword at approximately midday. Over two lakh individuals looked up "TVK party is BJP or Congress."

They obviously haven't been monitoring Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar's ascent. Interestingly, individuals also looked for the name of his party on Google using queries like "TVK which party?" and “TVK kiski party hai.”

What Do We Know About Vijay and TVK?

In 2024, Vijay, known to his millions of devoted admirers as "thalapathy" or "commander," created the TVK, albeit this was not his first attempt at entering politics. His supporters' organization, All India Thalapathy Vijay Makkal Iyakkam, allegedly won 115 of the 169 seats it ran for in the October 2021 local body elections in Tamil Nadu. The TVK’s performance in this Assembly election is a stunning debut.

People are eager to learn about Vijay's personal life as he is expected to dominate TN politics. His wife's identity was the subject of several search enquiries. 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.