Puducherry: Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) leader Vijay returned to a public platform on Tuesday for the first time since the Karur stampede tragedy, addressing a gathering at Puducherry.

The actor-turned-politician, who has stayed away from public events following the death of 41 people during his Karur rally, delivered a pointed political speech criticising the ruling DMK while highlighting his party’s welfare-driven agenda. Vijay accused the Centre of repeatedly denying full statehood for Puducherry and being indifferent to the Union Territory’s needs, claiming there has been no proper allocation of funds or facilities. 'Only for Centre, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry are separate, we people are together,' he added.

He urged voters not to trust the DMK, alleging that the party would “deceive the people”, and invoked MGR’s historic association with Puducherry to appeal to the electorate. Reiterating his call for complete statehood for Puducherry, Vijay said Chief Minister M K Stalin should “learn from the Puducherry government” in terms of governance and development. In his words, “Puducherry government led by CM Rangasamy not like TN's DMK regime. Puducherry government is impartial and has given security to rally of a rival party. It will be good if TN's DMK regime learns from impartial Puducherry govt, they will however not learn now.”