The Congress on Tuesday agreed to extend support to the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) to form the government in Tamil Nadu after the Vijay-led party fell 10 seats short of the majority mark in the Assembly elections.
The decision was taken at an urgent meeting of the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) of the Tamil Nadu Congress late on Tuesday night.
At the meeting, held online, senior members reportedly expressed their views in favour of supporting the actor-turned-politician.
The Congress maintains that the mandate in Tamil Nadu is for a secular government committed to protecting the Constitution in letter and spirit. Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal confirmed that Vijay had reached out to the party seeking support to form the government.
“The INC is determined not to allow the BJP and its proxies to run the Government of Tamil Nadu in any manner. Accordingly, the Congress leadership has directed the TNCC to take a final decision on Thiru Vijay’s request, keeping in view the sentiments of the state reflected in the electoral verdict,” he said in a post on X.
Venugopal’s remarks came after top Congress leaders, including Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Tamil Nadu in-charge Girish Chodankar, held a meeting at party chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence.
TVK won 108 seats in the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly and needs the support of 10 MLAs to form a government with a simple majority. The Congress has won five seats.
To reach the magic number, Vijay has also opened negotiations with other parties in the Secular Progressive Alliance. He is likely to receive support from the Left Front, Thol. Thirumavalavan’s VCK, and a few other smaller parties with single-digit representation.
DMK fumes
Meanwhile, the decision of Congress to support Vijay’s TVK has angered the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), with party spokesperson Saravanan Annadurai describing the national party as “backstabbers.”
In an interview with NDTV, Saravanan said the five seats the Congress secured in this election were due to its alliance with the DMK. “Otherwise, they would have drawn a blank in the recent polls,” he added.
Saravanan further noted that the TVK has never spoken a single word against the BJP or Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He also claimed that after the election, Vijay chose to first thank Modi instead of the people who elected him.
In the election, which saw a major disruption in Tamil Nadu’s bipolar polity, the DMK won 59 seats, while the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) won 47 seats.
Among other parties, the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) has bagged four seats while the CPI and CPI-M have two seats each. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) and the Amma Makkal Munnettra Kazagam (AMMK), have won one seat each while the VCK has won two seats.