In a fresh twist in the race towards the 118-seat majority required to form the government in Tamil Nadu, Vijay's TVK is now reportedly in talks with a section of AIADMK MLAs over a possible power-sharing agreement with the Deputy CM post on offer.
Vijay's party, which emerged as the single-largest party in the Assembly elections with 108 seats, has yet to reach the 118 mark, despite receiving five Congress MLAs, taking their count to 113 MLAs.
Amid requests to the smaller parties in the fray, which will play a key role in selecting the coalition that will rule over the state, the TVK's new target is a section of 28 AIADMK MLAs holed up at a resort in Puducherry.
The AIADMK MLAs are supporters of senior party leader C.V. Shanmugam, and are reportedly in backchannel talks with the TVK for key ministerial portfolios, with the Deputy CM post offered to the senior leader, ANI said.
It added that former Tamil Nadu minister and TVK candidate K.A. Sengottaiyan was reportedly involved in the talks as well.
The report also claimed that both O.S. Manian and Shanmugam are in favour of the TVK's government formation offer, though no formal news of this has come out yet.
This is likely because AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami has not yet agreed to any such proposal supporting the TVK, which is likely to cause a rift within the party.
Should the AIADMK MLAs accept the offer, it is yet to be seen how it would impact the five Congress MLAs that had backed the TVK, as they had offered their support on one condition: that no "communal forces that do not believe in the Constitution of India" were to be included in the alliance.
The President of Tamizhaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), Thiru C Vijay, has formally requested the Indian National Congress (INC) to extend its support for forming a government in Tamil Nadu. The people of Tamil Nadu, especially the youth, have delivered a very clear, strong and… pic.twitter.com/Aig79MoRoE
— Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (@INCTamilNadu) May 6, 2026
It was earlier speculated that Palaniswami was all set to call on Governor Rajendra Arlekar soon at the Lok Bhavan in Chennai, in order to ask the governor to invite him for the formation of the state government.
Notably, sources in the DMK and the AIADMK say that Vijay being sworn in as the chief minister and forming the government is the natural choice.
However, it is in case he is unable to form the government that Palaniswami is likely to stake claim to form the government with the support of the smaller parties and outside support from the DMK.
This would mean both the national parties—the Congress and the BJP—would be kept out of the government, and the TVK would be relegated to the Opposition side.
