Tamil Nadu Governor Rajendra Arlekar on Saturday gave the green light for TVK chief C. Joseph Vijay to form the government in the state, marking an end to a stalemate between the two over the 118-seat majority mark required for the same.
Vijay will be sworn in as the Chief Minister at the Nehru Indoor Stadium at 10 AM tomorrow, along with 10 ministers.
"The Hon'ble Governor has directed the Chief Minister-designate to seek the vote of confidence of the Assembly on or before 13th May 2026," a press release from the Lok Bhavan read.
In Vijay's fourth visit to the Lok Bhavan after Governor Arlekar previously refused to invite him to form the government in the state, the latter reviewed letters of support submitted by the allied parties and gave his assent for the formation of the new government.
Notably, just a few hours earlier, Governor Arlekar had deferred the Lok Bhavan meeting with Vijay, citing a visit to Kerala.
However, it was when that meeting was cancelled that Vijay rushed to the Lok Bhavan to stake his claim to the state government—this time with the support of 121 MLAs.
The TVK managed to cross the 118-seat mark after Thol Thirumavalavan's VCK most recently lent him outside support, stating that it was to avoid President's rule in the state. The addition of two MLAs each from the VCK and the IUML took Vijay's party to the 121-mark.
This comes after the Congress lent the party five of its MLAs, and the two Left parties followed suit with two MLAs each.
The stalemate over the majority mark had led to the failure of Vijay's previous three attempts to stake a claim to the state government, as Governor Arlekar refused to budge from his initial refusal over the lack of numbers, despite the TVK being the single largest party.
The stalemate had led to a variety of political reactions across the board, with two people even filing Supreme Court petitions seeking directions to the Tamil Nadu governor to take a decision on Vijay's TVK, arguing that the latter's decision was unconstitutional, and that the TVK could not be denied the chance to prove its majority through a floor test.