Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) chief Vijay has written to the office of the Tamil Nadu Governor staking claim to form the government. This was confirmed by Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar to a news channel. Vijay’s party has secured 108 seats, falling short of 10 seats to emerge a single majority party.
According to the Governor, Vijay has written a letter appealing to him to invite the TVK to form the government. When asked if he has the necessary seats to form the government, the actor-turned-politician reportedly responded positively.
TVK has won 108 seats and secured a vote share of 34.92% in its poll debut followed by the DMK at a distant second with 24.19% and AIADMK with 21.21%.
The TVK is in talks with the Congress seeking its support to form the government. The Congress has won five seats out of the allotted 28 seats. Cracks have begun to appear in the Secular Progressive Alliance following this move. The DMK has already started to brand its ally, the Congress, as “backstabbers.”
Senior Congress leader KC Venugopal confirmed that Vijay has reached out to them.
“Indian National Congress is clear that the mandate in Tamil Nadu is for a secular government committed to protecting the constitution in letter and spirit. INC is determined not to let BJP and its proxies run the government of Tamil Nadu in any manner,” Venugopal said, suggesting that the party is willing to extend its support to keep the BJP at bay.
Responding to this, DMK spokesperson Saravanan Annadurai said that the Congress was able to win the five seats only because of them. “When the BJP/RSS was trolling Rahul Gandhi as “Pappu” it was our leader #MKStalin who declared him as the Prime Ministerial Candidate. Just putting things in a perspective,” he said.
The TVK has also reportedly reached out to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)], which won two seats.