In 2023, when John Arokiasamy entered Tamil film superstar Vijay’s political orbit, he was said to have been fascinated by one number above all else: 10 lakh. That was roughly the number of “likes” Vijay could command online for even an ordinary social media post in one hour at the time.
The question, friends recall John repeatedly asking in private conversations, was simple: could that scale of digital affection be converted into votes? “It will. Wait and see,” he would tell them.
For much of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK)’s campaign in the recent state Assembly elections, in which it pulled off a stunning win, the party’s public face was its founder, Vijay – cinematic, emotionally charged, almost deliberately elusive. But behind the actor-turned-politician’s electoral rise stood a quieter figure: John Arokiasamy, the strategist who has now emerged as one of the most closely watched backroom operators in Tamil Nadu politics.
Soft-spoken and rarely visible at public rallies, Arokiasamy played a role far beyond that of a conventional election consultant. Within TVK circles, he is seen less as a campaign manager and more as a central organising mind, someone involved not only in messaging and electoral strategy, but also in shaping the party’s structure, internal functioning and political positioning.
“Ask John” became one of Vijay’s default responses inside the TVK — delivered with the same casual certainty with which Bussy Anand, the old fan-club organiser who could still call district and town functionaries by name, ran the party machinery. If Anand converted a sprawling fandom into an organisation, Arokiasamy gave that organisation its political skeleton, discipline and shape.
Inside TVK, one word is repeatedly associated with how Arokiasamy understood Vijay: “cult”.
“Cult, cult, cult — that was how John would describe Vijay’s political potential,” said a person familiar with the strategist’s early conversations with the actor. “He believed Vijay was not merely popular, but a cult in the making, perhaps beyond even Vijay’s own understanding of himself.”
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That understanding shaped much of the TVK’s political architecture. Multiple people close to Vijay’s camp believe it was Arokiasamy who helped firmly position him against the BJP and the broader right wing, not necessarily out of ideological immersion in Dravidian politics, but through cold electoral arithmetic.
In internal discussions, sources said, Arokiasamy repeatedly stressed that nearly three-fourths of Tamil Nadu’s voters historically aligned with Dravidian political sentiments in one form or another. Vijay, he argued, had to speak to that audience.
The slogan that came to define the TVK’s campaign — “DMK is the political enemy, BJP is the ideological enemy” — is widely attributed to him. So too is the framing of the DMK as an entrenched generational “system” requiring disruption.
“Without John, Vijay could easily have drifted toward the NDA,” said one party insider familiar with their early strategy sessions.
Strategist’s trajectory
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Arokiasamy, who hails from Chittoor in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, studied English literature in Trichy before completing an MBA in Chennai. He worked at Perfect Relations and later rose to become Director and COO at Good Relations India before launching Persona Leadership Advisory Pvt Ltd in 2017 and later JPACPersona, his political consulting venture.
His political résumé cuts across parties and ideologies: the PMK’s “Maatram Munnetram Anbumani” campaign in 2016, the Congress ecosystem in Karnataka during Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s first tenure, Sharad Pawar’s undivided NCP in Maharashtra, and Uddhav Thackeray-led undivided Shiv Sena’s municipal strategy in Mumbai.
Yet, those who know him say his personal life is marked less by political aggression than discipline and faith. A devout Christian, Arokiasamy is described by friends as deeply religious, structured and intensely private. “The Bible is central to his life,” said a close associate. “But he is secular beyond what people would ordinarily expect from someone so deeply faithful.”
TVK insiders say the formal agreement between Vijay and Arokiasamy, signed in 2023, was structured for a three-year period – enough time, perhaps, to test whether a cinematic cult could become a political one.
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Building a new party from scratch and taking it past the 100-seat mark in its debut election is rare in Tamil Nadu politics, which the TVK has pulled off. It has now also made Arokiasamy one of the state’s most influential political strategists and perhaps the man who helped turn fandom into a governing possibility.
