After taking oath as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister on Sunday morning, C Joseph Vijay signed three files that he wanted the state to see first: 200 units of free electricity for domestic consumers, a special force for women’s safety with a helpline, and a statewide anti-drug mechanism.
Then he stood up before a roaring crowd and delivered the clearest political message of his young administration. “Nobody should even think that now that we have come to power, we can go on a rampage,” Vijay said. “Do not even keep such ideas in mind. Clear it off. There will be only one power centre, that is me.”
It was an unusual first day for a Tamil Nadu CM amid part political transition, part mass spectacle, part emotional culmination of a decades-long film relationship between a star and his audience. And Vijay attempted to present himself as something else: a man inheriting a damaged state and asking for time to rebuild it.
“The state has been left behind in a bad shape,” he said, promising a white paper on Tamil Nadu’s finances during the previous DMK government. “I will release the white paper first. The previous government has left us with a debt of Rs 10 lakh crore.”
The speech moved between personal memory and administrative warning. Vijay spoke about growing up as the son of an assistant director, knowing “poverty and hunger,” and not coming from a “royal lineage.” He reminded the audience that he had faced humiliation and hardship before entering the cinema. “I am like your son, your brother. You gave me a place in your hearts,” he said.
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