Fact Check: Did Actor-Turned-Politician Vijay Criticise Jagan Mohan Reddy In His Speech?
A viral video claiming Tamil actor Vijay criticised Jagan Mohan Reddy in his speech is false. The full video shows that Vijay made no reference to Reddy during his speech.
The Verdict [False]
- The full video shows that Vijay made no reference to YSRCP president Jagan Mohan Reddy during his speech in Tamil Nadu.
What is the claim?
A video of Tamil actor-turned-politician Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar, popularly known as Vijay, has gone viral on social media with a claim that Vijay criticized Jagan Mohan Reddy, president of the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister, in his recent speech.
Vijay recently addressed a state-level conference of his party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. His speech was mistranslated from the regional language Tamil to another regional language, Telugu.
The 30-second video was captioned in Telugu, "There are many cases against Jaganmohan Reddy. There is not a single case against me. And if he becomes a CM, can't I become one? You people tell (me)." The post on X (formerly Twitter) garnered 7,600 likes and was reshared 1,200 times. Archived versions of similar claims can be viewed here and here.
According to reports, Vijay's first political speech focused on launching his party TVK and outlining the party's ideology and goals for the 2026 Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu. We found that Vijay did not refer to Reddy in the viral clip or the rest of his speech at his party's first state conference.
What we found
We noted the Tamil news media platform Polimer News logo at the top-right corner of the viral clip. Using this, we located the full video of Vijay's speech on their YouTube channel (archived here). The video titled 'Thalapathy Vijay's Powerful Speech at TVK Maanadu 2024 | TVK Maanadu Crowds | Vijay Conference' shows Vijay addressing a crowd at his party's conference. The speech was delivered at the party's first state-level conference on October 27 in Tamil Nadu's Villupuram district.
The relevant portion can be viewed in the video between the 5:40 mark and 6:10 mark. During this time, Vijay says in Tamil, "As far as I know, we're all one; we are all equal. To all of you in my heart…all of you here: Salutations to my life (referring to the crowd)."
We also examined the entire speech and found that Vijay does not refer to Reddy or compare himself to the YSRCP president.
In addition, we checked the full speech uploaded by the local news channel Puthiyathalaimurai TV (archived here) and found no reference made by the actor-turned-politician to the YSRCP president.
Media reports noted that Vijay, in his speech, attacked the ruling party in Tamil Nadu, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK); however, we found no mention of any such reference to Reddy made by Vijay in his speech.
This confirms that Vijay did not refer to Reddy or any cases of the YSRCP president, and the viral clip was shared online with a false narrative.
The verdict
Our research shows that the viral video is shared with a false translation of actor Vijay's speech from his party's conference. In his speech, the actor-turned-politician did not reference former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy.
This report first appeared on logicallyfacts.com, and has been republished on ABP Live as part of a special arrangement. Apart from the headline, no changes have been made in the report by ABP Live.
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