CHENNAI: Four days after the elections to the Tamil Nadu Assembly resulted in a fractured mandate, the fledgling TVK, with its 108 seats, on Friday was still two seats short of the 118 MLAs-elect required for the party to form a government and its chief C Joseph Vijay to occupy the chief minister’s seat.
For the third day in a row, Vijay called on Governor Rajendra Arlekar to stake his claim as the leader of the single largest party in the new House. From its 108 seats in the Assembly, the TVK’s strength will reduce to 107 once Vijay resigns from one of the two constituencies from which he was elected. The TVK’s post-poll alliance with the Congress (five seats) takes the tally up to 112.
On Friday, the CPI and CPM, with two MLAs-elect each, offered their support to the TVK from the outside, bringing TVK’s strength up to 116, only two short of the magic figure. The bone of contention turned out to be the will-they, won’t-they dance of two DMK allies, the VCK and IUML.
Lok Bhavan sources said during that Friday’s meeting, Vijay said both parties, with two MLAs-elect each, promised to support the TVK and that their letters would come in due course. The governor was said to be waiting for the letters to arrive.
However, the IUML, by evening, clarified that they remained with the DMK camp and would not be supporting the TVK. The VCK, which appeared to have all but sealed the deal with the TVK, did not send any letter of support by end of day.
Senior VCK leaders visited DMK chief M K Stalin at his house late on Friday night but sources maintained that VCK would announce its outside support to TVK on Saturday.
Cong accepts TVK’s power sharing offer, may receive ministerial berth
In his 15-minute meeting with the governor, Vijay had showed his letters of support from the Left parties and explained that the VCK and IUML had promised support. He requested that the TVK be invited to form the next government.
He was accompanied by senior TVK leaders N Anand, K A Sengottaiyan, and Aadhav Arjuna. Curiously, Venkat Narayanan, the producer of Vijay’s film Jana Nayagan, also accompanied the TVK functionaries.
With the Lok Bhavan yet to respond to the TVK’s latest effort, the party has put off the swearing-in ceremony that was tentatively planned for May 9 as the governor had given them time only till May 10.
At present, only the Congress has taken up the TVK’s offer of a share of power in the state government and is likely to receive a ministerial berth in the cabinet. S Rajeshkumar, who was elected leader of the legislative party for the Congress, would likely take office as minister in a Vijay cabinet, Congress sources said.
Adding to the drama in a week with no shortage of it, a lawyer claiming to be a TVK member on Friday moved the Supreme Court seeking directions to the governor to invite the single largest political party to form the government.
Walkthrough of Friday’s drama
Following separate executive committee meetings, M Veerapandian and P Shanmugam, the state-unit leaders of the CPI and CPM respectively, announce external support to actor-politician Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam in a joint press meeting
Vijay meets with Governor Rajendra Arlekar for the third time, stating his party had support from MLAs-elect of the Congress, CPI, CPM and his party, with letters to follow from the VCK and IUML
The IUML, with two MLAs-elect, announces it is not backing the TVK and remaining with the DMK alliance. The VCK had not formally announced support for TVK by Friday night, leaving TVK with 116 MLAs-elect, two short of a majority