Thalapathy Vijay’s “Vijay Makkal Iyakkam” registered significant victories in the local body elections. Candidates of the party contested independently and registered 5 wins. Parvez who contested in ward 4 in Pudhukottai Municipality won the election. Mohan Raj who also belongs to Vijay Makkal Iyakkam contested as an Independent candidate in ward 3 of Ranipettai Walajapet municipality.

Velmurugan who contested in Kumarapalayam of Namakkal district has also registered his victory which increased VMI’s winning percentage. In the 7 areas VMI candidates contested, they won in three which came in as a surprise to political analysts and experts. V. Menagha who contested in the 15 ward, Poovalur Municipality of Trichy district and Saithani Mohammed Gous who contested in 21st ward of Kottakuppam municipality, Vizhuppuram distrct are other two candidates who registered their victories on behalf of “Vijay Makkal Iyakkam”.

Apart from that, in Chennai, “Vijay Makkal Iyakkam” candidate Arivu Selvi got second place in a ward surpassing ADMK candidate. According to BBC, Arivu Selvi said that “Vijay Makkal Iyakkam” approached her voluntarily saying that they will support her in the local body elections.

In the 136th ward of Chennai city, a 22 year old student Nilavarasi Durarairaj who belongs to DMK party registered the victory. In the same ward, Arivu Selvi, an independent candidate of “Vijay Makkal Iyakkam” got the second place. While Lakshmi Durarairaj of ADMK was expected to compete with Nilavarasi, she lost the election by receiving just 1137 votes.

Nilavarasi won the election by receiving 7122 votes and Arivu Selvi who got the second place, received 5112 votes. Arivu Selvi’s husband Gunasekharan was serving as councillor for the same ward after winning as an ADMK candidate in the year 2011. He who walked out of the ADMK party later, was planning to contest as an independent candidate. However, the 136th ward was announced as a ward only for women candidates which made Guna to make his wife Arivuselvi contest.

Arivu Selvi, while talking to BBC, said that her husband was already a member of that ward. “He knows about the problems of his ward very well. I happened to contest as candidate as he couldn’t enroll himself” she said. While talking about why she chose to represent “Vijay Makkal Iyakkam” instead of contesting as an independent candidate or a candidate who represent any other prominent party, Arivu Selvi said “Initially, we contested independently. Members of “Vijay Makkal Iyakkam” contacted us saying that they will support us and joined with us”

“They searched for us and voluntartily and said that they will support us and we accepted. The vote count increased only due to my husband’s political background and the support of Vijay fans. We felt the strong reception we received after joining with Vijay Makkal Iyakkam” Arivu selvi added.

In the 7 places they contested, Vijay Makkal Iyakkam tasted victories in 5 places. The political party of actor Vijay didn’t stop after letting fans contest in the local body elections. The party members also worked on searching for strong Independent candidates to support them in order to register victories.