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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay will visit Tiruchirappalli for a public meeting to thank voters after recent elections. The visit follows political realignments in the state, with defections from AIADMK to TVK reshaping regional politics

Tiruchirappalli: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay will visit Tiruchirappalli to address a public meeting to thank the voters during his maiden visit on Monday.

He is scheduled to visit the city in the evening and ahead of his trip, the police have enforced traffic diversions.

Since Vijay-led Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam came to power, several AIADMK members, including four legislators switched loyalty and joined the TVK. A large number of AIADMK functionaries, including a leader are expected to join the ruling party.

The sudden shift reflects a statewide crisis in the AIADMK post Assembly election in which the Dravidian party was relegated to third position, managing to win only 47 MLAs. Four of them joined the TVK barely hours after resigning as MLAs.

Former state minister Dr C Vijayabaskar, who held a consultation with his supporters last week has said that he would soon announce the next course of political action.

Another former minister, C Ve Shanmugam, who did not meet party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami despite his colleagues in cross voting during the floor test in the Assembly on May 13, S P Velumani and other rebel MLAs met Palaniswami recently and agreed to accept his leadership and function as “united and strong AIADMK.”

Shanmugam is yet to make his stand clear, though Velumani has insisted that Shanmugam is still with them.

Recently, TVK’s allies the Left parties and the VCK opposed the party admitting those from the AIADMK and said encouraging defections was “unhealthy politics.” The CM would be addressing the first rally after he took up the reins as Chief Minister on May 10.

The TVK president won from both Tiruchirappalli East and Perambur Assembly constituencies in the April 23 Assembly elections and vacated the Tiruchirappalli East constituency and retained the Perambur seat in Chennai.

TVK sources said Vijay is scheduled to leave from Chennai in a chartered flight and would reach Tiruchirappalli by around 4 pm. He will take part in a meeting to thank the voters at the event at St Joseph’s college here.

The CM is also expected to interact with TVK cadres during a meeting, besides reviewing the development of ongoing projects in Tiruchirappalli.

Vijay’s visit is also a part of an ongoing exercise within the party where all TVK MLAs were instructed to visit their respective constituencies to thank the voters.

Meanwhile, the TVK appealed to party cadres to follow police guidelines in attending the programme. Only 5,000 people who have been provided with a QR code admission pass alone will be allowed to attend this programme.

“The QR code admission passes have already been issued. Keeping safety in mind, pregnant women, children, school students, senior citizens, differently-abled people, and people with health problems have not been given a QR code passes and therefore they have been requested not to come for the meeting,” the party said in the release.