Closing hundreds of TASMAC liquor shops was among his key orders, as was a focus on women’s safety; but there were at some major political twists too

Vijay is no stranger to thrillers and Week 1 box-office impact. True to form, the actor-turned-politician’s first week as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu has been nothing short of a thriller.

Following his swearing-in on May 10, and a successful trust vote won comfortably, CM C Joseph Vijay marked his debut in office with a righteous policy blitz, a viral controversy, a rapid reversal, and subplot that cracked a party. We’ll come to the subplot later.

Day 1: Three orders before sundown
Just after Vijay was sworn in at Chennai’s Nehru Indoor Stadium before a roaring crowd, his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) having won 108 seats in the April 23 polls — enough, with Congress and Left allies, to form a coalition government — He signed his first three orders.

Free electricity was doubled from 100 to 200 units for eligible domestic consumers.
A new all-women security force, the ‘Singa Pen Sirappu Athiradi Padai,’ was established across the state.
And 65 anti-narcotic task force units were ordered into every district, the centrepiece of his campaign promise of a “drug-free Tamil Nadu”.
There’s been criticism of how these forces do anything different than becoming new names for existing operations, and if the state has enough money since Vijay has spoken about a ₹10-lakh-crore debt he inherited from MK Stalin’s DMK regime.

TASMAC crackdown, and reinforced drinking age
Two days later, CM Vijay signed an executive order directing the closure of 717 TASMAC liquor outlets within a two-week deadline. These were the ones all operating within 500 metres of places of worship, educational institutions, or bus stands. The state’s total outlet count will thus fall from 4,765 to 4,048.

The government also reinforced the legal drinking age of 21, issuing instructions to all remaining TASMAC staff to stringently enforce it, with mandatory ID verification — Aadhaar cards or driver’s licences — required wherever a buyer’s age is in doubt.

A reduction in operating hours, potentially moving the current 10 pm closing time to 8, is also being actively discussed. The decision was welcomed by women’s groups and social organisations that had campaigned for such restrictions for years.