Top Tamil actor Thalapathy Vijay on Friday announced launching a political party, 'Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam', and said he will contest the 2026 Assembly polls in the state. Politics was not yet another vocation but "holy public service," he said in a statement here.

The name of the party 'Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam' would loosely translate to 'Tamil Nadu Victory Party'. The announcement prompted spontaneous celebrations from his fans, even as speculations were rife for some time about the actor taking the political plunge in a state known for stars graduating from cinema to politics, including the late veterans M G Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa.