The Congress on Wednesday extended support to actor-turned-politician Vijay’s Tamizhaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) to form the next government in Tamil Nadu, while snapping its long-standing alliance with the DMK and setting conditions to keep “communal forces” out of the arrangement.
A delegation of Congress MLAs arrived for a high-profile meeting with the TVK chief at the party headquarters in Panaiyur.
The visual of the legislators entering the TVK premises has sent ripples through the state’s political corridors, signalling a potential shift in traditional alliances ahead of the upcoming electoral cycles.
The atmosphere at the TVK office remained charged, with supporters and onlookers gathering as the Congress leaders were ushered in for the closed-door interaction. The Congress leaders were welcomed by the TVK party chief and Chief Minister-designate with garlands and silk shawls.
Announcing the decision, AICC Tamil Nadu in-charge Girish Chodankar said the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee and the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) had resolved to back the TVK.
“Our support shall be conditional upon the TVK keeping out of this alliance any communal forces that do not believe in the Constitution of India,” he said.
In the recently concluded Assembly elections, the TVK emerged as the single largest party, winning 108 seats of the total 234, disrupting the decades-long dominance of the DMK and AIADMK. The DMK secured 59 seats, while the AIADMK won 47.
Despite the breakaway from the DMK alliance, Congress leaders indicated that both sides could continue to remain part of the broader INDIA bloc at the national level.
The Congress’s support adds five MLAs to Vijay’s tally, taking the TVK-led bloc to 112 seats. The party will still require at least six more legislators to cross the majority mark of 118 in the 234-member Assembly. Vijay has already initiated talks with parties such as the VCK, CPI and CPM, whose backing could push the numbers past the halfway mark.
The Congress underlined that its partnership with the TVK is intended to go beyond immediate government formation.
“This alliance is not only for the formation of this government, but also for future elections to the local body organisations, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha,” Chodankar said, describing it as one based on “mutual respect, appropriate share, and shared responsibility”.
In its statement, the party invoked the legacies of K Kamaraj, Periyar E V Ramasamy and B R Ambedkar, positioning the alliance as rooted in social justice and constitutional values.
The Congress also said Vijay had formally sought its support to form the government, adding that the electoral verdict reflected a mandate for a “secular, progressive and welfarist government”.
The statement noted that Vijay and Rahul Gandhi had “jointly pledged to respect this historic verdict of the people of Tamil Nadu”.
While the meeting was officially termed a "courtesy call", the optics of established national party representatives engaging with the fledgling party’s top brass suggest a strategic warming of ties.
Insiders indicate that the discussions touched upon the prevailing political climate in Tamil Nadu, though both camps have remained tight-lipped regarding specific tactical understandings.
According to informed sources, TVK leaders have also reportedly met AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami in Chennai, signalling possible shifts in alliances and internal strains within the BJP-led camp.
(With inputs from PTI)
