TVK Vijay rally Stampede News: Do anything to me, spare my partymen Vijay’s 1st message to Stalin after Karur tragedy

Tamil Nadu Karur rally stampede: In a speech that was part grief, part accusation, and part challenge following Karur stampede, Vijay said, ‘We did not do anything wrong’

Written by Arun Janardhanan

Updated: September 30, 2025 05:06 PM IST

5 min read

Truth about stampede will come out soon, says actor Vijay. PTI JSP JSP ROH

Truth about stampede will come out soon, says actor Vijay. (Screngrab: X/@TVKVijayHQ)

Tamil Nadu Karur rally stampede, Vijay Karur tragedy: For three days, the Tamil Nadu government walked a fine line after the Karur stampede that killed 41 people at actor-politician Vijay’s rally: naming his party leaders in criminal cases but steering clear of the superstar himself. On Tuesday, Vijay broke his silence with a video statement that cast aside the careful restraint, challenging Chief Minister M K Stalin directly and validating the anger within his base.

“I never faced such a painful situation in my life before,” Vijay said in the 4-minute, 45-second recording, delivered in his composed, cinematic style, with long pauses. He thanked supporters for their “immense love and hope” and offered condolences to grieving families. But the core of the message was less elegiac than confrontational. “CM Sir, if you are desperate to find fault with us, do it with me. Don’t touch them (my supporters). I will be here at home or at the office. Do whatever you want to do with me,” he said.

In a video message on X, Vijay said, “I haven’t faced such a painful situation in my life. It’s really painful. People thronged the site out of trust and love for me. I will urge the police department to investigate safety failures. Such an unfortunate incident has happened, and the loss of lives has left me in deep pain.”

In one sweep, Vijay sought to recast the tragedy not as a failure of crowd control but as a political conspiracy. “I have gone to about five districts for campaigns, and why does this happen only in Karur? People know the truth. People are watching everything. When people of Karur themselves started revealing the truth, I felt like God himself had come out to speak the truth,” he said.

The speech was part grief, part accusation, and part challenge. Vijay said the rally was conducted at the government-allotted venue and insisted, “We did not do anything wrong.” He accused the police of targeting his party unfairly. “In spite of that, FIRs have been filed against our leaders and cadres, and even social media friends are being booked,” he said, before inviting Stalin to “do whatever you want” with him instead.

The statement followed a weekend in which the ruling DMK had carefully avoided escalating the situation. While police registered cases against TVK’s Karur district secretary V P Mathiyazhagan, state general secretary ‘Bussy’ Anand, and deputy general secretary Nirmal Kumar under multiple criminal sections, Stalin emphasised that Vijay himself was not being named, saying the one-person commission headed by retired judge Aruna Jagadeesan would determine accountability.

For DMK, that caution is now being tested. By effectively challenging the chief minister in public, Vijay not only shifted the spotlight back to himself but also sharpened the perception that the DMK is hesitant to confront him. For a government that has tried to frame the stampede as the product of poor planning and organisational lapses, Vijay’s video recast the narrative as one of persecution.

The mood among his supporters was already inflamed. In Namakkal, hours before the Karur tragedy, several had collapsed from heat and exhaustion. At least four who attended his rally in Namakkal were in the hospital even on Monday. Many in Karur itself were left without food or water as they waited all day for his delayed arrival. But the social media within his camp had churned with speculation that the DMK had a hand in orchestrating the chaos. Vijay’s latest video statement gave those rumours fresh oxygen.

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The provocation was compounded by Adhav Arjuna, TVK’s poll propaganda in charge, who was with Vijay in the campaign vehicle during the Karur stampede. He had posted on X about “Gen Z rebellion” in a way that suggested parallels to Nepal. The post drew sharp rebuke from the DMK, which demanded his expulsion. The former union minister and the DMK deputy general secretary A Raja accused him of making remarks “against India’s sovereignty and integrity,” and pointedly asked why Vijay had not removed him. Arjuna deleted the post after backlash but declined to comment further, saying he was grieving the loss of 41 lives in Karur.

Top sources in the government told The Indian Express repeatedly over the weekend that Stalin was wary of immediate action against Vijay, fearing that an arrest or even a direct summons would hand him a sympathy wave. That calculation still holds, insiders say, but Tuesday’s statement has complicated matters.

By calling on Stalin to target him personally, Vijay cast himself in the familiar role of a film protagonist daring the villain to strike. To his fans, it was an act of defiance. If it has injected a new volatility, it has also narrowed the space for cautious calculation, leaving DMK to balance the risks of restraint against the risks of confrontation.

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