On Wednesday, Vijay, the leader of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, met with Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, the governor of Tamil Nadu, and staked claim to form the state government.
On May 7, Vijay is expected to take the oath of office as chief minister after TVK turned out to be the largest seat-winning party in the TN Assembly; however, it failed to secure a simple majority. In a surprising move, the Congress party announced it will support TVK in forming the next government in the state.
The move came as a rude shock to the Congress's longtime ally, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which called the Congress's announcement on Wednesday a "backstab".
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For a political party or coalition to easily form the government, it must surpass the majority threshold. The majority score in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, which has 234 members, is 118. In the 2026 elections, none of the political parties reached this milestone.
With TVK having secured 108 seats already, the five seats from Congress are going to give a boost to the party to reach the magic numbers. With Congress's five seats, the number will further go up to 113 for TVK, which will need five more seats to form the next government.
As of now, it is unclear who will be allying with the TVK to reach the majority mark; however, Tamil Nadu Congress President K Selvaperunthagai was quoted by ANI on Wednesday as stating, "The TVK has also approached AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) in an attempt to bridge the gap."
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