The meeting, limited in access, tightly choreographed, and held away from open grounds, was designed to signal caution after the Karur tragedy. But the tone of the speech was anything but restrained. “They lied and made us vote and grabbed power, and now act as if they are doing good, playing a big drama,” Vijay said. “How can we spare them? We won’t let them go, they will be questioned.”

Vijay framed his critiques through a Dravidian lineage argument — a symbolic battleground in Tamil Nadu politics. Kancheepuram, he reminded the gathering, is the birthplace of Annadurai, the beloved ideologue whose break from the Dravidar Kazhagam birthed the DMK. “When MGR founded his party, he featured Anna on the party flag,” Vijay said. “But those who controlled the party started by Anna himself — what of their wrongdoings? The people know!”

He insisted the rivalry with DMK was not personal. “They can have a grudge against us, but we do not hate them,” he said. “We began our political journey in Parandur, fighting for the people there, and after a tragedy, we are beginning again in Kancheepuram.” It was a deliberate return to place and symbolism. Parandur is where Vijay launched his first major political outreach last year, opposing the proposed greenfield airport and aligning himself with farmers.

In recent weeks, DMK leaders have publicly questioned whether Vijay’s TVK has any ideological grounding. That attack appeared to animate much of Vijay’s speech on Sunday. “A party that asked how much for a kilogram of ideology is asking whether we have ideology,” he said, mocking the DMK’s rhetoric with wordplay — claiming kolkai (principles) had become kollai (loot).

He listed causes he said demonstrated TVK’s ideology: opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act before TVK was formally launched, demanding a caste census, moving the Supreme Court against amendments to the Waqf Act, and demanding that education be moved to the State List.

“We raised these demands even before many parties. Still they say we have no ideology?” he said. “Are they the wholesale dealers of ideology?”

The attacks were unrelenting. Vijay compared the ruling party to a “syndicate of dacoits” and accused it of having no time to think of ordinary people. He alleged illegal sand mining along the Palar river had cost Tamil Nadu Rs 4,730 crore, and said Kancheepuram’s famed weavers continued to live in poverty while waiting for basic infrastructure improvements. He reiterated TVK’s opposition to the Parandur airport and promised that “we will stand with farmers.”

The political promise that followed was sweeping, aspirational, and calibrated toward Tamil Nadu’s lower-middle-class households.

Permanent housing, a motorcycle for every family, “a car is also necessary,” he added, one earning member in each home, and at least one graduate. Government hospitals, he said, must be strengthened so people “can approach them without fear,” and law enforcement must ensure that sexual assault cases like those reported in Coimbatore and at Anna University “shouldn’t even happen.”

“I am not someone to make taller claims and cheat you,” he said. “If I say something, I will do it. I have come to politics only to do good for you, we have no agenda.”

Notably, Vijay did not mention the Karur stampede. Until Sunday, TVK’s activities had largely paused, and his return was being closely watched by all political parties and leaders.

Vijay also took issue with critics branding his supporters tharkuri — a Tamil insult implying illiteracy or foolishness. “We are not tharkuri,” he said. “We are acharyakuri — the exclamation mark — and the sign of change.” He drew a historical parallel, noting that when M G Ramachandran launched the AIADMK in 1972, he and his followers were dismissed as circus performers before sweeping the state’s political imagination.

“We haven’t even started attacking you,” Vijay warned the DMK toward the end of his speech. “Why are you crying aloud already?” he said, amid a huge applause, after two months of quiet.