Vijay appears set to be Tamil Nadu CM as TVK reaches majority mark

Vijay appears set to be the next Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu as his TVK party has reached the majority mark of 118.

While Vijay’s TVK emerged as the single-largest party with 107 seats, he fell short of the majority. But now he has secured the numbers.

But Vijay has now secured support from Congress, CPI, CPI (M), and VCK, according to CNN-News 18.

These parties broke ranks with the DMK to join hands with TVK. While Congress was quick to dump the DMK to join TVK soon after the election results, the two communist parties and VCK kept Vijay waiting.

But, as speculation emerged that DMK and AIDMK could join hands to keep TVK out of power, these parties also joined the coalition.

Vijay is expected to meet Governor Rajendra Arlekar this evening to stake the claim to form government.

Vijay has already staked the claim twice but was turned down after the Arlekar did not express confidence in his ability to reach the majority mark. He reportedly had the support of 13 MLAs in their second meeting.

Previously, the TVK had considered moving to the courts to compel Arlekar to accept the party’s claim to form a minority government, according to NDTV.

As per The Hindustan Times, Vijay had reached out to Congress for a pre-poll alliance but the party had rejected the offer for ideological reasons.

Vijay had offered Congress 75 seats but the party at the time decided that it was essential to maintain the alliance with DMK as it was a must to oppose the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nationally.

But, once TVK emerged as the single-largest party, Congress changed its stance and dumped the DMK to join TVK.

Vijay, who is popularly known as Thalapathy, is one of the Tamil cinema’s biggest stars. He launched his party TVK in 2024. This was his first assembly election.

By joining politics, Vijay has followed the path of Tamil film personalities like MG Ramachandran, J Jayalalithaa, and Vijayakant, who transformed their stardom into political success.