Actor-politician Vijay, who has taken oath as the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, will have to prove his majority on the floor of the House before May 13. The date for trust vote is yet to be announced.
Vijay’s oath ceremony, which took place on Sunday, came after four days of protracted political negotiations after his party received an unprecedented mandate that split open the binary politics that Tamil Nadu has been witnessing for over five decades.
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The journey to the majority mark of 118 seats, though, was not easy. The Congress was only willing ally that Vijay, whose TVK (Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam) could initially round up. But the Congress had only five MLAs. The rest — CPI, CPM and PMK — kept the TVK on tenterhooks for days before finally saying yes.
VCK postponed its decision, while the IUML refused to extend support. The AMMK, meanwhile, accused the TVK of forging the signature of its lone MLA from Mannargudi to make it seem he was extending support.
There were even reports that rivals over five decades — the DMK and the AIADMK — were getting ready to join hands to keep Vijay and the Congress out of power. The TVK declared that if such an eventuality comes to pass, every single MLA of the party would resign.
Governor RV Arlekar, meanwhile, was not ready to invite Vijay to form government, contending that he lacks numbers. Arlekar even demanded that Vijay produce a list of the parties and MLAs who were ready to support him, drawing massive backlash across the political divide.
The breakthrough for Vijay came after CPI and CPM – allies of the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance – decided to extend outside support to TVK. The parties argued that it was necessary “to avert Governor’s Rule, prevent the BJP from gaining room to enter the state, and to protect secularism”.
The VCK and IUML followed suit. All the parties, however, maintained that they were not severing ties with the DMK.