TN'S POLL RACE FIRING ON ALL CYLINDERS, BUT WHERE IS IT HEADED?

State elections are usually a perfect mirror held up to the society in flux, yet in poll-weary Tamil Nadu, it conjures up an eerily blurred image.

- ANTO T JOSEPH

Never in the past have the political parties in the state looked so diffident. In the halcyon days when two sides of the Dravidian coin fought for domination, the state swayed unabashedly to make one a superhero and the other, almost zilch. Not anymore. The year 2026 is set to be a tumultuous roller coaster ride; heartbeats resonate louder than Ilaiyaraaja's lively jazz.

Many surmised the Karur tragedy would choke the newborn TVK and bury Vijay's dreams. Such a miscalculation now gleams with audacious effrontery. In Tamil Nadu's animated political theatre, Vijay seems to have unfurled an aperture of serendipity for many. It looks like no alliance in the state is insulated from being poached or disintegrated. Loyalty, that antique virtue, has faded into obsolescence.