New Delhi:
A disgruntled employee. An all-powerful boss. And sweet revenge.
All the elements of (another) blockbuster from the 2026 Tamil Nadu election played out Monday as VS Babu from actor Vijay’s TVK handed DMK leader and Chief Minister MK Stalin a shock defeat in his Kolathur bastion.
Babu polled 9,192 votes more the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam boss.
For context, the Kolathur seat was created after a delimitation exercise before the 2011 election.
Stalin – then the Deputy Chief Minister – edged the AIADMK’s Saidai Duraisamy that year by 2,734 votes. In 2016 and 2021 the margins were much more dominant; he won by 37,730 and 70,384, respectively, over the AIADMK’s JCD Prabhakar and Aadi Rajaram. It was the textbook definition of a political bastion.
Tamil Nadu Election Results | MK Stalin Loses Kolathur Stronghold To TVK’s VS Babu
But on Monday that narrative flipped.
Back in time
Rewind to the 2011 poll.
The DMK chose to shift Stalin from the Thousands Lights constituency – a seat he had won in four of the six previous elections – to the newly-created Kolathur. And he duly won.
But the northern Chennai race threw up a closer contest than the DMK’s powers-that-be likely wanted for the man being groomed as the next-generation party boss. And Babu – who engineered Stalin’s campaign – was held responsible.
VS Babu joined actor Vijay’s TVK in February 2026. (File).
The overall district in-charge for north Chennai till 2011, VS Babu had been given additional responsibility – to oversee Stalin’s campaign. The expectation was high, which was perhaps puzzling as few of Stalin’s previous wins had been one-sided.
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The now-DMK chief has only won by 10,000 votes or more five times. Before 2011 that was in the 1996 election when he retained the Thousand Lights seat by a massive 44,877 ballots. Nevertheless, the slim margin was the end of VS Babu’s job.
The DMK shunted him out and replaced him with PK Shekhar Babu as the party’s north Chennai district chief.
In June 2016 VS Babu jumped to the AIADMK.
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And in February 2026 he joined the TVK, in hindsight an astute hire who has done exactly what he was brought in to do – to complete a humiliating Monday for the DMK and MK Stalin.
Vijay dismantles Dravidian binary
Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam came into this election as the unfancied challenger, up against Dravidian behemoths DMK and AIADMK in a state that had not voted for any other party in over six decades. The last time was back in 1962 when the K Kamraj-led Congress won. The DMK and AIADMK have traded election wins and rotated governments since.
Chief Minister MK Stalin and his Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam were widely seen as the favourites.
This was largely because the party-led alliance recorded big wins in the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha polls – 38 the first time and all 39 the second. And also thumped the AIADMK in the 2021 Assembly election, winning 159 of 234 legislative seats.
Vijay: Actor, politician, and now likely Tamil Nadu Chief Minister. (File)
The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam – rudderless since the death of party icon J Jayalalithaa in December 2016 – was seen to be in a re-building phase, with questions over the leadership nous of ex-Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami.
But even a hobbled AIADMK was expected to be too much for Vijay and the TVK.
The stage seemed set for the DMK to claim a second term; Stalin exuded confidence last week when he said: “There is no doubt about victory. I am saying this not on the basis of exit polls but on the basis of feelings of party workers I see.”
Except there was.
In a state where voters’ only options – i.e., parties that understood the Dravidian identity – were the DMK and AIADMK, Vijay offered something they have not had in decades – a choice, one they grabbed with both hands, handing the superstar a sensational electoral debut win. Now the stage has a different setting – Vijay’s new role as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
