Inside ‘Team Vijay’: The strategists, influencers, loyalists, and ex-bureaucrat in Tamil Nadu’s new Cabinet

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4 min learnChennaiCould 10, 2026 09:53 PM IST

The brand new Tamil Nadu Cupboard sworn in alongside Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay on Sunday displays the bizarre structure of the Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK).

First within the order is N “Bussy” Anand, Vijay’s closest political organiser and the occasion’s normal secretary. A former Puducherry legislator from the Bussy constituency, Anand is the bridge between Vijay’s fan-club universe and electoral politics. For TVK cadres, he’s much less a standard functionary than the operational heartbeat of the motion – the person who transformed welfare associations, blood donation networks and fan golf equipment right into a political machine.

Aadhav Arjuna, the son-in-law of lottery baron Santiago Martin and a former DMK and VCK chief, represents the TVK’s marketing campaign equipment. He brings to the Cupboard a mixture of elite political entry, booth-level administration, youth mobilisation and social justice vocabulary. His rise alerts Vijay’s try to professionalise a celebration born out of fandom with out surrendering its emotional power.

Dr Okay G Arun Raj provides the ministry its technocratic face. A physician who later joined the Indian Income Service (IRS) and served within the Earnings Tax Division earlier than taking voluntary retirement, Raj turned considered one of TVK’s most recognisable coverage and tv faces. The DMK’s allegation that he was linked to the 2020 tax raids towards Vijay, denied by him and the occasion, solely made him extra seen because the system insider who crossed into Vijay’s camp.

Okay A Sengottaiyan brings what the younger occasion lacks: a long time of legislative and ministerial expertise in AIADMK, because the MGR period. The previous AIADMK veteran, provides Vijay’s Cupboard administrative reminiscence and a hyperlink to Tamil Nadu’s older governance tradition. In a ministry in any other case crammed with first-generation leaders, his presence presents ballast.

P Venkataraman is amongst Vijay’s long-trusted institutional palms. Recognized throughout the Vijay ecosystem as a gradual administrator who labored carefully with him lengthy earlier than the TVK’s formal launch, he represents continuity between Vijay Makkal Iyakkam – Vijay’s social organisation – and the brand new authorities. He isn’t a mass orator within the Anand mould, however a programs man, the type charismatic actions want after they transfer from marketing campaign phases to authorities information.

R Nirmalkumar, a former BJP digital operator who later moved to the AIADMK earlier than becoming a member of the TVK, embodies the occasion’s post-television politics. His contribution lies in turning fandom into algorithms of constructing meme networks, WhatsApp chains and on-line volunteer programs right into a disciplined digital marketing campaign drive.

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Rajmohan Arumugam brings satire, screens and internet-era communication into authorities. Recognized by way of YouTube channel Put Chutney, Tamil Vannakam and his earlier public talking profession, he represents a brand new Tamil political grammar: much less slogan, extra meme; much less platform speech, extra conversational outrage and humour.

Dr T Okay Prabhu, a dentist-politician from Karaikudi, provides one other skilled face to the Cupboard. His rise from native organisation to ministerial workplace exhibits TVK’s try to undertaking educated, managerial credibility past cinema charisma.

The youngest and most placing entrant into the Cupboard is S Keerthana. At 29, the Sivakasi MLA brings generational change, gender illustration and media fluency. Her ascent as a younger lady minister from a politically masculine industrial belt provides Vijay’s first ministry considered one of its sharpest visible messages.

By night, the form of the brand new authorities was clear: a Cupboard constructed from the unusual new chemistry of Tamil Nadu politics – fan golf equipment, bureaucrats, influencers, defectors, professionals, and previous warriors gathered round one actor-turned-CM.

Arun Janardhanan is an skilled and authoritative Tamil Nadu correspondent for The Indian Categorical. Based mostly within the state, his reporting combines ground-level entry with long-form readability, providing readers a nuanced understanding of South India’s political, judicial, and cultural life – work that displays each depth of experience and sustained authority.

Experience
Geographic Focus: As Tamil Nadu Correspondent targeted on politics, crime, religion and disputes, Janardhanan has been additionally reporting extensively on Sri Lanka, producing a decade-long physique of labor on its elections, governance, and the aftermath of the Easter Sunday bombings by way of detailed tales and interviews.

Key Protection Areas:
State Politics and Governance: Shut reporting on the DMK and AIADMK, the emergence of latest political actors corresponding to actor Vijay’s TVK, inner occasion churn, Centre–State tensions, and the position of the Governor.

Authorized and Judicial Affairs: Constant protection of the Madras Excessive Court docket, together with religion-linked disputes and instances involving state authority and civil liberties.

Investigations: Deep-dive collection on landmark instances and unresolved questions, together with the Tirupati encounter and the Rajiv Gandhi assassination, alongside a number of investigative collection from Tamil Nadu.

Tradition, Society, and Disaster: Reporting on cultural organisations, language debates, and catastrophe protection—from cyclones to extended monsoon emergencies—anchored in on-the-ground element.

His reporting has been recognised with the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism.

Past journalism, Janardhanan can also be a screenwriter; his Malayalam function movie Aarkkariyam was launched in 2021. … Learn Extra

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