As Tamil Nadu turns its gaze towards the assembly elections next year, one question dominates the political landscape: how prepared are actor Vijay and his Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) for the electoral battle after the Karur stampede setback?

The TVK, once seen as a new force that could reshape the state’s political arithmetic, is facing its first major public crisis. Vijay’s rally in Karur on September 27 ended in tragedy with a stampede that left 41 people dead, many of them women and children.

A ‘fact-finding committee’ of the Women’s Safety and Gender Justice Collective, a recently-launched civil society initiative that draws its members from various women’s movements in Tamil Nadu, has held TVK and Vijay primarily responsible for the stampede. The committee held there was no exter

See Full Page