{"id":567182,"date":"2026-05-05T09:47:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T09:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/567182\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T09:47:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T09:47:07","slug":"in-vijays-tamil-nadu-surge-some-fans-see-ms-dhoni-factor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/567182\/","title":{"rendered":"In Vijay&#8217;s Tamil Nadu Surge, Some Fans See &#8216;MS Dhoni Factor&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                                                &#13;<br \/>\n                                                    &#13;<\/p>\n<p>As the drama-filled 2026 Assembly elections conclude, the &#8220;Yellow Wave&#8221; typically associated with the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) seems to have tinted the political map of Tamil Nadu. While Thalapathy Vijay&#8217;s debut as a political heavyweight is being hailed as the political equivalent of a cinematic blockbuster, a section of fans sees a &#8220;Captain Cool&#8221; blueprint for the victory. Vijay&#8217;s win prompted fans to point out the tactical DNA of his campaign. Last year, political strategist Prashant Kishor, while joining forces with TVK, famously set a unique benchmark for success.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have to become the most popular Bihari in Tamil Nadu,&#8221; Kishor had stated. &#8220;To do that, I have to compete with Dhoni, who makes CSK win. I will make TVK win under your leader.&#8221; By invoking Dhoni, Kishor set clear expectations while also attracting the attention of the legendary India captain&#8217;s fanbase in the state.<\/p>\n<p>The most visible link was the TVK election symbol: the Whistle. To the average Tamil voter, the whistle is synonymous with CSK&#8217;s &#8220;Whistle Podu&#8221; anthem. Throughout the campaign, TVK rallies felt like gatherings of CSK fans in the Chepauk grandstands.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Vijay Thalapathy was not wrong when he said this:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven in cricket, the one who whistles is Tamil Nadu\u2014CSK! Even in the upcoming election, the one who is going to blow the whistle is our TVK!\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/rKM49Lp6xA\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/rKM49Lp6xA<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\u2014 Abhishek Kumar (@Abhishek060722) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Abhishek060722\/status\/2051238374963642398?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">May 4, 2026<\/a>&#13;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"cs\">Whistle podu<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nCup mulhyam bigiluuuuu <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CMVijay?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#CMVijay<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/TVKVijay%E2%80%8C?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#TVKVijay\u200c<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ttRGbkmYRb\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/ttRGbkmYRb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\u2014 M\u00e9fiant (@TheSolo__9) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheSolo__9\/status\/2051182667526451685?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">May 4, 2026<\/a>&#13;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Firey Speech brutal attack on all parties.<\/p>\n<p>Thalapathy finishes off in style like Dhoni sixer <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/eCFRHemUh3\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/eCFRHemUh3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\u2014 Sophia Vijay (@sansofibm) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sansofibm\/status\/2046544053186224291?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April 21, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For many first-time voters, the transition from cheering for &#8220;Thala&#8221; (Dhoni) on the pitch to voting for &#8220;Thalapathy&#8221; (Vijay) at the booth felt like a natural progression of loyalty. During the final stages of the 2026 election, as TVK crossed the 100-seat mark, Vijay&#8217;s &#8216;political finishing&#8217; felt like <a title=\"MS Dhoni\" href=\"https:\/\/sports.ndtv.com\/cricket\/players\/700-ms-dhoni-playerprofile\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MS Dhoni<\/a>&#8216;s &#8216;cricket finishing&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>However, the &#8220;Dhoni Factor&#8221; also brings a Dhoni-esque challenge. With 108 seats, Vijay is short of the 118-majority mark. The state now enters a &#8220;Super Over&#8221; situation, which needs to be resolved through negotiations and coalition building.<\/p>\n<p>    &#13;<br \/>\n            Featured Video Of The Day&#13;<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n            Tushar Deshpande&#8217;s Brilliant Final Act Ensures Thrilling Win For RR Over Gujarat Titans&#13;\n        <\/p>\n<p>Topics mentioned in this article <\/p>\n<p>                                    <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; As the drama-filled 2026 Assembly elections conclude, the &#8220;Yellow Wave&#8221; typically associated with the Chennai Super&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,157385,157383,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-567182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-cricket-ndtv-sports","tag-mahendra-singh-dhoni","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}