Cash handouts to women and youth, 8 tola gold, silk sarees, 6 LPG cylinders and more: Vijay’s TVK may form the govt, but how will it fulfil its promises?

Actor-turned-politician Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar’s party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), made heads turn after it defeated the incumbent DMK and won a staggering 108 seats in its debut election. While Vijay is yet to prove his majority on the floor and has sought time to show the support of the required 118 MLAs, the focus is now on the tall election promises made by the party ahead of the polls. The road ahead seems challenging for the TVK, even as the party managed to break the political duopoly of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in the state. Part of the challenge arises from some of the electoral promises made by the party before the elections. The promises, which seem to have shifted a significant number of voters to the TVK, will require the spending of a huge amount of money. TVK’s lucrative poll promises The 95-page manifesto released by the TVK focused on welfare schemes, including handouts and loans. Here is a look at some of the most lucrative poll promises made by Vijay’s party: TVK promised a ₹ 2,500 monthly allowance for women heads of households up to the age of 60 under the Madhippumigu Magalir Thittam scheme. Families of state and central government employees will be excluded from this. It also promised to set up separate departments to ensure the safety of women, children, and the elderly in the state, along with special women’s courts. As per the manifesto, mothers of newborn children will get a gold ring for the newborn. Mothers of schoolgoing girls up to class 12 will receive ₹15,000 a year to reduce school dropouts. The party promised a single financial handout of up to ₹5 lakh for women’s self-help groups. The party promised six free LPG cylinders per household every year under the Annapoorani Super Six Scheme. It also promised a ₹2,500 allowance for diploma holders, a ₹4000 monthly allowance for around 10 lakh unemployed graduates, and a ₹8,000 monthly allowance for ITI diploma holders. The TVK also promised collateral-free loans of up to ₹20 lakh for students between Class 12 and the PhD level and a ‘transparent’ timeline for all recruits in the Tamil Nadu government. The most expensive promise made by TVK in its election manifesto is to give 8 grams (one sovereign) of gold and a quality silk saree to the families of brides from economically weaker sections under the Annan Seer Thittam scheme. In addition to the handouts, the TVK manifesto promised a cooperative farm loan waiver and legally guaranteed MSP procurement of paddy and sugarcane. Salary hikes for certain employees and allowances have also been promised, including an increase in police salaries from ₹18,500 per month to ₹25,000, a ₹1,000 monthly hardship allowance and permanent jobs for temporary teachers, nurses and staff who have completed five years in service. How TVK’s poll promises add to the state’s financial burden To express these poll promises in numbers, the state government’s projected annual expenditure on welfare spending alone will go up to ₹1 lakh crore. According to the Indian Express, this will mark a sharp increase of 52% from the ₹65,000 crore spent by the previous DMK government on welfare schemes and subsidies in 2025-26. Pertinently, this financial burden on the state exchequer comes in addition to an existing debt of 26% of GSDP. If the poll promises are financed through higher expenditure without new revenues, this will increase the total fiscal deficit from the budgeted 3% of GSDP in 2025-26 to about 3.5-4.0%. This estimate does not take into account the projected spending on the promised cooperative farm loan waiver and legally guaranteed MSP procurement of paddy and sugarcane. Besides, the salary hikes promised in the manifesto will also further push the government expenditure, and will cut down on government spending, which should have gone into investments needed for employment creation. The TVK does not apparently have a roadmap laid out for implementing the poll promises and hopes to do that “by reducing the growing debt burden, increasing revenue without imposing any additional tax on the people, ensuring efficient and prudent expenditure, and creating new sources of income”.