Inside 'Team Vijay': Strategists, influencers, supporters and former bureaucrats of Tamil Nadu's new cabinet

4 minute learnchennaiMight 10, 2026 09:53 PM (IST)

The brand new Tamil Nadu Cupboard, which was sworn in on Sunday with Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, displays the weird construction of the Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK).

On the head of the pecking order is N “Bussy” Anand, the political organizer and social gathering basic secretary closest to Vijay. Mr. Anand, a former Puducherry MP from Bushi constituency, is the bridge between Mr. Vijay’s fan membership world and electoral politics. For TVK executives, he’s much less a standard official and extra a central determine within the motion’s actions, a person who turned welfare associations, blood donation networks, and fan golf equipment into political machines.

Aadhav Arjuna, son-in-law of lottery magnate Santiago Martín and former chief of DMK and VCK, heads TVK’s marketing campaign equipment. He brings to the Cupboard a mixture of elite political entry, booth-level administration, youth mobilization, and social justice language. His rise marks an try by Vijay to professionalize a celebration born of fandom with out abandoning its emotional vitality.

Arun Janardhanan is an skilled and authoritative Tamil Nadu correspondent for The Indian Categorical. Primarily based within the state, his reporting combines ground-level entry and long-form readability, offering readers with a nuanced understanding of South Indian politics, judiciary and tradition, and reflecting each the depth of his experience and enduring authority. Experience Geographic focus: Simply as our correspondent in Tamil Nadu centered on politics, crime, religion and battle, Mr. Janardhanan has additionally reported extensively on Sri Lanka, producing a decade-long physique of labor on elections, governance and the aftermath of the Easter Sunday bombings by in-depth articles and interviews. Key protection areas: State politics and governance: Detailed protection of the DMK and AIADMK, the emergence of recent political actors reminiscent of actor Vijay’s TVK, defections inside the social gathering, tensions between centrist states and the position of governors, and so on. Authorized and Judicial Affairs: Constant protection of the Madras Excessive Courtroom, together with disputes associated to faith and circumstances involving state energy and civil liberties. Investigations: Deep-dive sequence on landmark circumstances and unresolved points such because the Tirupati encounter and the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, in addition to a number of investigation sequence in Tamil Nadu. Tradition, Society and Disaster: From cyclones to prolonged monsoon emergencies, we report on cultural teams, language debates and catastrophe protection, with native particulars. His reporting gained 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