Tamil Nadu: TVK's Vijay to offer prayers at Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health ahead of counting day

Vijay's fans posted themselves near the church's entrance in the hopes of getting a glimpse of the former actor too, with hundreds of people waiting in anticipation since Saturday morning.

The Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health is a shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary in Tamil Nadu's Velankanni. The shrine is its busiest between August 29 and September 8 for its annual festival, Holy Week, and Christmas.

Vijay's visit to the shrine comes a day before counting is set to begin for the Assembly elections of Tamil Nadu, where Vijay's party, the TVK is contesting to give a challenge to the MK Stalin-led DMK. Polling for all 234 seats across Tamil Nadu took place on April 23.

VIjay is contesting from the Perumbar and Tiruchirappalli East constituency. In Perambur, Vijay is pitted against DMK heavyweight RD Shekar. In Tiruchirappalli East, he is contesting against sitting DMK MLA Inigo Irudayaraj S, who won with a huge margin of 53,797 votes in the 2021 elections.

Exit polls have predicted that the Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA), led by the DMK, is returning to power in the state, while the TVK is set to not even cross the 10-seat mark for its poll debut, except the Axis My India exit poll predicts TVK getting more than 95 seats.

People Pulse projected 125-145 seats for the DMK-led alliance and AIADMK-led alliance, which includes the BJP, getting 65-80 seats. It projected Vijay's Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) getting two to six seats. Tamil Nadu has 234 assembly seats.

Exit poll projections by Matrize indicate that DMK and allies will get 122-132 seats and AIADMK and allies 80-100 seats. It said TVK would get 0-6 assembly seats.

The exit poll by P-MARQ projected 125-145 seats for the DMK-led alliance, 60-70 seats for the AIADMK-led alliance, and one to six seats for TVK.

However, the Axis My India exit poll projected that Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) would get 98-120 seats in its debut election, the DMK-led alliance 92-100 seats, and the five-party alliance led by the BJP 22-32 seats.

Multiple TVK leaders have rejected such projections, with party leader KA Sengottaiyan claiming that public response on May 4 would "astonish the entire nation."

The TVK leader told ANI on Thursday, "The scale of public response would astonish the entire nation, adding that such an overwhelming level of 'whistle sound' has never been witnessed in world history and that the reality would be evident on the 4th May." (ANI)