Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) chief Vijay is set to meet the Tamil Nadu governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar as the actor-turned-politician moves to form the next government. On Monday, the TVK recorded a historic win in the state, but fell short of securing the majority mark.
As per the Election Commission of India, the Vijay-led party won a total of 108 seats in the Tamil Nadu assembly elections. The majority mark to claim a stake in government formation in Tamil Nadu is 118 seats.
After TVK, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, led by outgoing chief minister MK Stalin, emerged as the largest party with a total of 59 seats. AIADMK secured 47 seats, while the Indian National Congress bagged five.
With Vijay short of ten seats, the TVK chief must form an alliance in order to stake his claim to form the next government in the southern state.
During their meeting, the governor of Tamil Nadu is expected to offer the TVK chief two options.
What are Vijay’s options?
According to reports, the governor may ask Vijay to gather support from allied parties and submit the claim to form the state government.
If the TVK secures 118 seats or more, the party will be invited to form the next state government.
If the Vijay-led party fails to garner support, the governor can call on the second-largest party in the assembly, which would be the DMK.
In this scenario, the DMK can then garner support from allied partners and upon reaching 118, it will be allowed to form the government.
As per reports, the TVK is already in talks with the Congress to join the government. However, with Congress holding five seats, the Vijay-led party will need the support of another party to secure the remaining five seats.
However, it’s not that simple
TVK leader Vijay won in both the constituencies he contested in – Perambur in Chennai and Tiruchirappalli East. Based on the rules of the election commission, Vijay will be required to resign from one of these seats.
After resigning, the party’s total tally of seats will decrease by one to 107. Furthermore, TVK will also appoint an assembly speaker, who would be ineligible to cast a vote in a confidence motion, further taking the party’s tally down to 106. Hence, Vijay needs at least 12 or more seats in order to stake his claim.
Vijay’s second option is to stake a claim to form a minority government. In this case, the TVK may form the government, but would need strong support from other parties to pass legislation and confidence motions.
