2 min readChennaiMay 13, 2026 05:28 AM IST
First published on: May 12, 2026 at 03:47 PM IST
With actor-politician Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) formally appointing astrologer Rickey Radhan Pandit Vetrivel the Chief Minister’s Officer on Special Duty (OSD), the party has brought into its inner structure a figure long associated with political astrology, numerology and high-profile predictions in Tamil Nadu’s power circles.
Born Vetrivel in Erode, the astrologer once counted former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa among his prominent clients. Their relationship, however, reportedly soured after one of his most high-stakes predictions failed dramatically.
Vetrivel had reportedly assured Jayalalithaa that she would avoid imprisonment in the disproportionate assets case. But in September 2014, she was jailed following the verdict, prompting a rupture between the two. Soon after, according to sources familiar with the episode, Jayalalithaa stopped consulting him, and Vetrivel moved to Singapore.
It was during this phase that Vetrivel underwent a reinvention. Adopting the name “Radhan Pandit Vetrivel” — one carrying a distinctly North Indian resonance — he attempted to broaden both his visibility and appeal among a larger Indian diaspora clientele. Though Tamil and rooted in Erode, with an apartment in Chennai, the astrologer spent time in Singapore and later Delhi, where associates say the transformation was driven partly by astrological considerations and partly by aspiration for wider legitimacy.
According to sources, it was after his return from Delhi that Vetrivel was introduced into Vijay’s political circle through an intermediary. His influence within the actor’s emerging political ecosystem soon became visible. Pandit was the astrologer who advised Vijay to contest from a constituency beginning with the letter “V”, a detail earlier reported by The Indian Express. During the election season, he also appeared in multiple YouTube interviews predicting a favourable political rise for Vijay and the TVK.
Tamil Nadu politics has historically maintained a complicated relationship with astrology and numerology, with leaders across party lines often consulting astrologers privately. But Vetrivel’s elevation marks a rare, perhaps unprecedented, institutionalisation of that relationship.
