Tamil Nadu’s Four-Cornered Contest and Economic Implications

• Tamil Nadu is facing a new four-cornered contest, with new charisma-driven forces emerging.

• Actor Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) attempts to replicate the AIADMK’s success with superficial Dravidian and social justice assertions.

• Film-maker Seeman’s Naam Tamilar Katchi seeks to redefine Tamil nationalism away from its Dravidian core.

• The AIADMK-BJP alliance aims to exploit rather than resolve caste tensions.

• Parties like the Pattali Makkal Katchi, mobilising specific caste identities, have aligned with the BJP for narrow identitarian gains.

• The DMK alliance’s progressive framework offers superior conditions for economic transformation.

• The new fragmented political landscape could affect the State’s economic trajectory.

• The State must avoid the middle-income trap, shifting to an innovation-driven, high-value manufacturing model.

• The state contributed 11.9% to India’s manufacturing GDP and has the most factories nationally.

• The central government’s increasing fiscal centralisation and anti-federal policies increasingly constrain Tamil Nadu’s financial autonomy.

• The DMK-led alliance must think beyond regional confines, mobilising opinion among other Opposition-ruled States on shared concerns.

• For the alliance to achieve its aims within Tamil Nadu, its national partners, particularly the Congress and Left, must actively foster a favourable discourse on federalism, social justice, and secularism nationally.

• The political battles in Tamil Nadu are not merely about retaining power but about preserving a distinct model of governance and development that has delivered tangible progress.