Tamil Nadu polls: TVK chief Vijay cancels election campaign in Chennai, citing time constraints

Chennai (Tamil Nadu): Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) chief Vijay has cancelled his election campaign scheduled in Chennai on Monday.

According to sources from the party, Vijay had planned to campaign in the Villivakkam and T Nagar constituencies. Although permission for the campaign was granted, the party alleged that the time allotted by the police to move between the two locations was insufficient.

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Citing these restrictions and time constraints, Vijay decided to call off his campaign for the day, sources added.

The TVK is also planning to lodge a complaint with the Election Commission regarding the issue. An official statement from the party is still awaited.

Tamil Nadu will go to the polls in a single phase on April 23, with counting scheduled for May 4.

The main electoral contest is expected between the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA), which also includes Congress, DMDK, and the VCK, and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by AIADMK with the BJP and Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) as allies. Actor-turned-politician Vijay is set to make his electoral debut with TVK, attempting to turn the upcoming elections into a three-way contest.

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Earlier on Saturday, Vijay launched a sharp offensive against the established political fronts in the union territory, calling the AINRC-BJP combine "tired" and DMK-Congress "confused" ahead of the Assembly election in Puducherry. Addressing a massive election rally, the actor-turned-politician highlighted that TVK is contesting in Puducherry for the first time and promised to push for full statehood if brought to power. Vijay questioned why the national parties, despite their power at the Centre, have not granted full statehood to Puducherry yet.

"There are 2 alliances in Puducherry... In Tamil Nadu, DMK-Congress is a confused alliance. Similarly, here too it continues to be a confused alliance. Similarly, there is an NR Congress-BJP alliance. It is not a united alliance. It is a tired alliance. Why hasn't this alliance granted statehood to Puducherry? If we come to power, we will do our best to secure statehood," said Vijay.