Did Tamil Nadu CM Vijay Say That He’s Joining the NDA? No, Claim Is False!

We found no mention of Vijay joining the NDA during his entire speech.

A video of Tamil Nadu CM C Joseph Vijay's speech is going viral on social media, with the false claim that he said he has decided to leave the INDIA bloc and join the NDA.

(Source: X/Altered by The Quint)

A video of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay's speech is going viral on social media, with the claim that he said he has decided to leave the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) and join the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

• The post's caption reads, "Inspired by @ncbn and @narendramodi, I am working hard for the progress of my state. I once was inspired @PawanKalyan’s films, Congress is now trying to backbite me. I have therefore decided to leave the INDIA alliance and join the NDA. —@actorvijay (SIC)."

• The video, uploaded on X, garnered over six lakh views.

An archived version of this claim can be found here. 

(Source: X/Screenshot)

Is it true?: No, the claim is false.

• Vijay did not state in his speech that he has decided to join the NDA.

How did we find out?: In the video, Vijay can be heard saying,

Whenever our friends speak, they start saying, 'Oh, we've been through MISA (Maintenance of Internal Security Act), we've been through MISA'. When it comes to MISA, they don't know what to do. Everyone is well aware of the history of MISA. They're watching everything that happened, is happening, and will happen. Are we going to comment on these people more than the public already does? Poet Kannadasan said something very short and sweet about DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam). "A tongue accustomed to speaking lies, hands accustomed to receiving and bags accustomed to being full".

(translated from Tamil to English)

• There is no mention of NDA in the video.

• Following this, we ran a reverse image search on the video using Google Lens and found a longer version of the video uploaded on X by the Press Trust of India.

• The caption states that while addressing the TN Legislative Assembly, Vijay recalled how former CM Jayalalithaa was humiliated in the assembly.

• We also found a video uploaded by The Hindu of the full assembly speech.

• In the section before the viral video, Vijay speaks out against using politics as a reason to demean women or anyone else and calls it unacceptable.

• Vijay also speaks out against a senior Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) member and his statements.

• He doesn't mention the NDA or joining the alliance.

• We conducted a keyword search and could not find any reports supporting the viral claim

Conclusion: The claim is false, as Vijay did not state in his speech that he has decided to leave the INDIA bloc and join the NDA.

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