The decision to extend free breakfast to students up to Class VIII means Vijay's government is retaining a flagship scheme of the previous government rather than dismantling it. The programme, which has become closely associated with the DMK's welfare record, was launched by the MK Stalin government in 2022 as the Chief Minister's Breakfast Scheme.
The initiative initially covered primary schoolchildren in government schools and was subsequently expanded to students in government-aided schools. Vijay's government is now extending it further to students in Classes VI to VIII, bringing another 15.30 lakh students in 15,454 government and government-aided schools under the programme.
The government has renamed the Chief Minister's Breakfast Scheme as the Perunthalaivar Kamarajar Breakfast Scheme, invoking the legacy of former Chief Minister and Congress leader K Kamaraj, who is widely associated with the expansion of school education and the state's school-meal initiatives. The additional allocation of Rs 217.63 crore takes the total programme allocation to Rs 724 crore.
The name change has triggered a political debate over who gets credit for the scheme.
"We aren't bothered who launched it, but we want people to benefit and hence we are enhancing this and even Amma Canteens Jayalalithaa launched," TVK national spokesperson Americai Narayanan told NDTV.
On the decision to name the scheme after Kamaraj, he said, "Kamaraj is the one who launched this and it's only fitting."
The DMK, however, has criticised the move.
"Their only job is to change the name of schemes we launched, they don't do anything on their own," DMK spokesperson TKS Elangovan said.
The exchange reflects the wider political contest over welfare ownership in Tamil Nadu: whether a successor government inherits a popular scheme or can claim political ownership by expanding and rebranding it.
Tamil Nadu's school-meal history itself adds another layer to the debate over ownership. The roots go back to the Justice Party era under British rule, when a meal programme was introduced at a Chennai Corporation school in 1920 in the then Madras Presidency.
Kamaraj subsequently played a major role in expanding school education and the school-meal programme.
MGR transformed it into the Nutritious Meal Scheme. Karunanidhi added eggs to the menu. Stalin introduced the free breakfast programme.
Vijay is now adding another layer by extending breakfast to middle-school students.
The breakfast programme is significant because it has been positioned as more than a food-distribution scheme. The programme ensured that children from economically weaker families did not begin their school day hungry, besides improving attendance and concentration, reducing dropout from education and ultimately improving the outcome of school education.
There is another political dimension to Vijay's focus on welfare for children and women.
Children themselves do not vote, but their enthusiasm for Vijay has been seen to influence voting choices within families, with parents and grandparents saying their children's support for the actor-turned-politician had shaped their own decisions.
Vijay has also publicly acknowledged the support of children, youth and women, highlighting the role he believes they played in mobilising families and encouraging voter participation.
That makes the focus on children politically significant. Vijay is not merely addressing today's schoolchildren through welfare; he is nurturing a relationship with the next generation that already forms an important part of his mass following.
The same political attention is visible in his focus on women, another important constituency for his movement. His government has announced initiatives including a dedicated women police force to tackle crimes against women and free silk sarees for brides.
மாண்புமிகு தமிழ்நாடு முதலமைச்சர் திரு.ச.ஜோசப் விஜய் அவர்கள் இன்று (22.9.2026), தமிழ்நாட்டில் உள்ள அனைத்து அரசு மற்றும் அரசு உதவிபெறும் பள்ளிகளில் ஆறாம் வகுப்பு முதல் எட்டாம் வகுப்பு வரை பயிலும் மாணவ, மாணவியர் பயன்பெறும் வகையில் பெருந்தலைவர் காமராஜர் காலை உணவுத் திட்ட… pic.twitter.com/Galyt2gOD4
— CMOTamilNadu (@CMOTamilnadu) September 22, 2026
The breakfast scheme, free branded bicycles for higher-secondary students and other child-focused measures, including a free gold ring for newborns in government hospitals, therefore sit within a broader political strategy of staying connected with families, including the younger generation that helped turn Vijay's enormous fan following into political support.
This has inevitably invited comparisons with another star-turned-Chief Minister, MGR, who built a powerful welfare-oriented political identity and remained in power for three consecutive terms till his death.
The choice of Kamaraj's name adds another layer to the politics. Congress is a crucial ally of the minority TVK government, whose support has helped Vijay's government cross the majority mark in the Assembly.
The Congress, however, has been uncomfortable with the growing chorus within the TVK projecting Vijay as a potential prime ministerial face, with the party maintaining that Rahul Gandhi is its choice for prime minister.
Against this backdrop, invoking Kamaraj, one of Tamil Nadu Congress's most enduring political icons, gives the alliance an additional symbolic dimension. The expansion of the breakfast programme therefore places Vijay's government at the intersection of welfare delivery, the legacy of Tamil Nadu's school-meal initiatives and an ongoing political debate over who owns their legacy.
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