Actor Vijay may have rewritten Tamil Nadu’s political history, but the party’s victory celebration was halted for over three days after failing to clinch the half-way mark by only 10 seats. The spotlight was turned away from the winner’s podium and onto the backrooms where a handful of smaller parties have come forward as Kingmakers. The TVK formalised an alliance with four parties on Friday afternoon, capping off days of hectic parlay and negotiations to ‘gain’ 10 seats.

The CPI, CPI(M) and VCK have now confirmed plans to support the TVK. Each of these parties has two MLAs in the Assembly, while the Congress has five. The combination now will send the Vijay-led TVK neatly over the 118-seat majority mark.

Understanding the election result tally

The Vijay-led TVK came close with 108 seats, but fell short of the 118 MLAs required to form the government. An alliance with the Congress did not help since the party secured only five seats during the recent elections. Two seats each from the CPI, CPI(M) and VCK ultimately pushed the TVK coalition over the administrative edge.

Neither the DMK nor the AIADMK could have formed the next government on their own, even if they ally with every single smaller party in the state. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam secured 59 seats in the recent polls while the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam got 47 constituencies. Their collective strength of 106 seats is slightly less than the tally racked up by TVK.

As such, both the TVK-Congress combine and a potential DMK-AIADMK alliance would have been be able to form the government with the help of smaller parties. 

The big three:

  • TVK (Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam / Vijay): 108 seats — single largest party but 10 short of majority
  • DMK: 59 seats
  • AIADMK: 47 seats 

The smaller parties:

  • PMK: 4 seats 
  • INC (Congress): 5 seats 
  • CPI: 2 seats, CPI(M): 2 seat, IUML: 2 seat 
  • BJP: 1 seat, DMDK: 1 seat, VCK: 2 seat, AMMK: 1 seat

Vijay’s search for allies

After winning 108 seats on Monday (May 4) Vijay needed a minimum of 10 additional MLAs to form the government. The Congress crossed over to form a coalition with TVK after winning five seats in alliance with the DMK, effectively pulling INC out of the DMK-led SPA and into the INDIA bloc alongside TVK. But this was not enough to persuade Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar as the TVK remained five seats shy of the majority mark.

Thus began multi-day negotiations with several ‘kingmakers’ as the TVK rushed to fill the final seats of its government. Both the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India held executive committee meetings on Friday morning to discuss the possibility of an alliance. The two parties also met with leaders from the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi before taking a final call on the matter. Each of the three parties has two seats in the Assembly, with an alliance pushing TVK over the majority mark.

“The Left parties, CPI, CPM, and also the VCK in Tamil Nadu, have all maintained that the larger mandate is for TVK. The Governor should invite the single largest party, and that government must be allowed to prove its majority on the floor of the Assembly, not in the halls or corridors of the Governor’s residence,” D Raja Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary told PTI earlier on Friday..

The Indian Union Muslim League (which holds two seats) had also said it was approached by the TVK for a possible alliance. IUML President, KM Kader Mohideen, told ANI on Thursday that the decision was being left to DMK chief MK Stalin. They finally relented and came on board.