In one of the most dramatic upsets of the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, K Vijay Dhamu, an auto driver by profession, has won the Royapuram Assembly constituency on a Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) ticket, defeating established political heavyweights in a result being seen as a major breakthrough for the debutant party.
Dhamu polled over 55,000 votes and won the seat by a margin of 14,000 votes over his nearest rival.
The result dealt a major blow to AIADMK strongman and five-time MLA D Jayakumar, who finished a distant third with just over 18,000 votes.
DMK candidate Subair Khan, son of late veteran minister Rahman Khan, came second but failed to overcome the TVK surge in the constituency.
A long-time member of the Vijay Makkal Iyakkam, Vijay’s fan club network, Dhamu had campaigned on his identity as a grassroots worker and common man.
“You may call us new faces, but we have been working on the ground for years through our fan clubs,” Dhamu had said during the campaign.
A widely shared image from the candidate announcement ceremony showing an emotional Dhamu embracing TVK chief Vijay emerged as a defining visual of the party’s grassroots campaign.
TVK’s strategy of projecting Vijay as the overarching face of the campaign while allowing local candidates to focus on constituency-level issues helped candidates like Dhamu convert the party’s momentum into electoral gains.
Dhamu’s campaign in the coastal constituency centred on promises for the fishing community, including modernised infrastructure and social security measures.
The loss is a significant setback for the AIADMK, with Royapuram having been a traditional stronghold for Jayakumar since 1991.
For the DMK, the result also marks a failed gamble after fielding Subair Khan in place of sitting MLA Idream R Murthy.
As TVK surges past the 100-seat mark in its debut election, Vijay Dhamu’s rise from the auto stand to the Assembly has emerged as one of the defining stories of the election and a powerful symbol of the party’s common man narrative.
