​No detours: On the Tamil Nadu elections, post-poll outcome

The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) and its leader C. Joseph Vijay, who was sworn in as Chief Minister along with nine Ministers from the party on Sunday, took the shortest and straightest route to power. Falling 10 seats short of the 118-seat majority mark, the TVK secured the support of four ideologically aligned parties — the Congress (five MLAs), CPI(M), CPI, and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, or VCK (two each) — with the IUML’s two MLAs taking the tally to 121. The TVK had, soon after its formation, sought to position the Congress and the VCK as ideological partners; that it has now drawn support from them and the Left and the IUML, even though they contested within the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led coalition, is therefore not out of place. The alternative mooted by AIADMK leaders, and endorsed by some DMK leaders — an AIADMK government propped up by the DMK — would have been an immoral exercise. In any case, outgoing Chief Minister M.K. Stalin was against such a farcical twist. Meanwhile, by demanding written proof of 118 MLAs’ support before inviting the TVK, the single largest party, to form the government, Governor Rajendra Arlekar ignored the Sarkaria Commission framework — which prioritises the single largest party with outside support next only to a pre-poll alliance — and the Supreme Court’s ruling in Rameshwar Prasad (2006) that only the floor of the House can test a Ministry’s strength.

The Congress, for its part, jumped at the offer opportunistically, pledging support to the TVK and committing to an alliance for local, Assembly and parliamentary elections. That it would so casually jeopardise a decades-old alliance with the DMK is unsurprising. The party contested the 2026 elections half-heartedly, divided at the top, and that ambivalence showed in its returns: in the 28 seats it contested, it polled just 28% of the vote — the second-lowest share within the DMK-led coalition; only the late-entrant DMDK did worse. It was also short-sighted, given that this alliance helped the INDIA bloc win all 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu in 2024. The Left and VCK lent support to the TVK while citing the need for a stable government and reiterating their partnership with the DMK against communal forces. The elections produced Tamil Nadu’s first hung verdict in decades, and the response to it was a test of constitutional propriety and political character. Despite an avoidable delay, a TVK-led government has eventually taken charge. It is now incumbent upon Mr. Vijay to build on the foundations laid by Dravidian governments, under whose stewardship Tamil Nadu has emerged as one of the front-runners of the Indian economy by prioritising industrial development and socio-economic equity.