Actor turned politician Vijay has finally crossed the majority mark needed to form the government in Tamil Nadu after getting the backing of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M).
It is a significant achievement for Vijay’s two-year-old party Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) which came out as the single largest party in the recently held Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu with 108 seats winning 108 seats in the 234-member House. But the party only secured a 118-seat majority by 10 seats and it has been hot political negotiating these past three days.
The Congress, which won five seats, had already pledged support to TVK and the total showed 113. The new support from the three parties — all of which won two seats — has now been upgraded to 119, which is well over the majority mark.
This formal declaration of the support of the alliance will be made at a joint press conference expected to take place in Chennai later this day.
In a statement, CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby said the parties wanted to prevent President’s Rule in the state and pointed out that constitutional conventions favoured an opportunity to the largest party on the floor of the Assembly to prove a majority. He highlighted the case of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who was asked to form the government in 1998 after winning only one largest party.
In the midst of the government formation, Vijay had made two visits to Raj Bhavan this week, where he met Governor R N Ravi, to claim and discuss the constitutional process.
The numbers are now in and it looks as though TVK is in a position to form its first-ever government in Tamil Nadu and Vijay has come a long way from a top star in films to a potential chief minister in just two years into active politics.