- Sridhar Vembu admitted locals had better insight on Vijay's electoral momentum than he did
- Delhi Airport security and a farmer predicted Vijay's surprising performance early on
- Vembu noted voter sentiment shifting beyond traditional party loyalties toward Vijay
Zoho co-founder Sridhar Vembu conceded that on-ground voices he encountered had a sharper read of Vijay's electoral momentum than his own earlier assessment.
As counting trends unfold, with Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) emerging as a strong contender but yet to cross the majority mark, Vembu reflected on conversations with ordinary citizens that now appear “prescient.”
“The Delhi Airport security guy and the farmer from my village (the former Annamalai volunteer) proved so prescient. To be perfectly honest, I had NO idea myself, and I was reporting what they said, unprompted,” Vembu wrote on X.
Vembu had earlier shared about the encounter with locals in a social media post on May 1. “At the security in Delhi airport… [he] guessed I must be from Tamil Nadu and excitedly asked ‘Sir, Vijay Thalapathi win?'” He had added that a politically aware farmer from his village — a former volunteer of K. Annamalai — told him, “Vijay is going to cause a surprise in our booth.”
Vembu had noted that such feedback reflected a wider shift in voter sentiment that cuts across traditional loyalties. Citing a recent analysis by Thuglak, he had said the “Vijay phenomenon… should not be dismissed as ‘movies' or ‘glamour',” adding that “people from various walks of life are pouring their hope for change on him.”
Despite acknowledging TVK's rapid rise, Vembu, in his May 1 post, had maintained that established players such as Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam still hold an advantage due to their “far better ground level organization and money.”
“I still think either DMK or AIADMK will win… but Vijay's political rise is remarkable, in such a short span of time,” he had said. The prediction, however, did not age well.
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