Speculations surrounding arch-rivals Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) joining hands to deny Vijay the chief minister's chair refuse to die down. In the latest update, AIADMK Rajya Sabha MP M. Thambidurai expressed confidence on Friday that his party will regain power in Tamil Nadu. Several discussions are ongoing and the public sentiment is favourable for his party, he reportedly said.
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"So many discussions are going on... I can't say anything now. We hope that good things will happen. My party and my leader will come back," Dinamalar quoted Thambidurai as saying.
"The public sentiment is there that the AIADMK has to come back to power... That may happen in the due course of time with the grace of God. We have full confidence that our party’s General Secretary, a leader of the people, will do good for the country," he reportedly added.
To a question about whether AIADMK–DMK negotiations are taking place, Thambidurai replied, "The leaders will speak on all of that."
There were unconfirmed reports of M. K. Stalin deciding to support the AIADMK from the outside in an effort to ensure the debutant TVK, which emerged as the single largest party in the state, is unable to form the government. If the two Dravidian parties come together, their smaller allies are more likely to fall in line instead of switching to Vijay's camp. All these theories, as Kanimozhi rightly pointed out, remain rumours with no known legitimacy.
Meanwhile, the Congress has already broken ties with the DMK to support the TVK.
Vijay's TVK won the April 23 Assembly polls in the state with 108 seats but fell short of the majority number by 10, prompting it to reach out to the Left parties, besides the VCK, seeking their support to form a government. Vijay will have to resign from one of the two constituencies he has won. Although the Congress party, which has five MLAs, has extended support to the TVK—which emerged as the single largest party—the actor-politician-led party was still short of the required seats to touch the magic number of 118, the majority mark in the 234-member House.