TVK Secures Support From 5 Congress MLAs, Still 6 Short As Governor Stays Cautious

Tamil Nadu’s post-poll drama deepened on Wednesday as Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) secured support from the Congress’s five MLAs , but still failed to convince Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar that it had the numbers to form the government.

TVK emerged as the single largest party in the 234-member Assembly , winning 108 seats in its stunning electoral debut. With Congress extending support, Vijay’s camp claimed the backing of 113 MLAs . But the effective number is more complicated. Vijay won from both Perambur and Tiruchirappalli East and will have to vacate one seat, bringing TVK’s working strength down to 107 . With Congress’s five MLAs, the bloc stands at 112 , still six short of the 118-majority mark .

Vijay met the Governor at Raj Bhavan and formally staked claim to form the government, but the Governor was not satisfied with the numbers presented. Reports said he asked TVK to return with clearer proof of majority support, delaying what Vijay’s supporters had expected would be a swift invitation to take oath.

The day was also marked by intense speculation over whether the AIADMK would step in to help TVK cross the line. Such a move would have given Vijay a comfortable route to power and, for a few hours, political circles in Chennai buzzed with talk of a possible outside-support arrangement. By the end of the day, however, the AIADMK publicly ruled out backing TVK, making it clear that it would not extend support to Vijay’s party.

That denial may not be entirely unwelcome for Vijay. Any formal understanding with the AIADMK would have carried political complications because the AIADMK fought the election as part of a BJP-aligned bloc . For a party seeking to project itself as a fresh, secular and anti-establishment alternative, getting too close to a BJP-linked alliance could have created uneasiness within TVK’s support base. Congress, too, has made its backing conditional on TVK keeping away from “communal forces,” making an AIADMK route politically delicate.

Meanwhile, another extraordinary possibility began circulating in Chennai’s political circles: a tactical understanding between the DMK and AIADMK to block TVK from power. The two Dravidian rivals have dominated Tamil Nadu politics for decades, and speculation about them finding common cause reflects the scale of disruption caused by Vijay’s rise.

The Governor’s caution is constitutionally defensible, since inviting a leader to form government in a hung Assembly is ultimately a matter of gubernatorial discretion. Yet TVK can point to several precedents where the single largest party was invited despite being short of majority, with the final test left to the floor of the House. At the Centre, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was invited in 1996 after the BJP emerged as the single largest party, though his government lasted only 13 days. P V Narasimha Rao also formed a minority government in 1991 after Congress emerged as the largest party. In the states, Governors have invited largest parties or alliances short of majority in situations such as Karnataka in 2008 and 2018 , leaving the numbers to be tested through a confidence vote.

That is why the Raj Bhavan stand is already acquiring a political edge. Officially, the decision rests with the Governor. In practice, critics argue that gubernatorial discretion in such high-stakes situations rarely operates in isolation from the Centre’s political comfort zone. For Vijay, the immediate challenge is now clear: convert the moral weight of being the single largest party into demonstrable legislative support, and find six more MLAs before the Governor’s caution hardens into a roadblock.