Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections 2026 | Vijay elected TVK Legislature Party leader; Congress likely to support

Chennai: Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) President C Joseph Vijay was on Tuesday elected as the leader of the Legislature Party and he is likely to meet Tamil Nadu Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar on Wednesday to stake claim to form the government.

The meeting on Wednesday comes as the Congress, a key ally of the DMK, is set to extend support to the TVK to form the government. A formal decision on the support is expected Wednesday morning after a meeting of senior leaders, functionaries, MLAs, and MPs of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC).

An indication that the Congress was ready to walk out of the DMK alliance came on Tuesday when party MLAs did not meet outgoing Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday while newly-elected legislators from other alliance partners met him and received his wishes.

“We will announce our decision tomorrow. The High Command has told the TNCC to discuss the issue and take a decision,” a top source told DH, adding that if the party decides to join the government, the TVK is likely to allot a couple of cabinet berths.

TVK, which won 108 seats, had reached out to the Congress, which won five seats, but it was not clear whether similar invitations have been extended to other parties like the CPI, CPI (M)VCK, and IUML, which have collectively won eight seats.

Sources told DH that Vijay and senior TVK leaders will meet Governor Arlekar and stake claim to form the government.

“Once the formalities are done, Vijay will be sworn in as the Chief Minister. We will seek about 15 days to prove our strength on the floor of the House,” a source aware of the developments said, adding that Thursday (May 7) is also a probable date for the swearing-in.

Vijay is likely to take oath alone or with about five senior leaders and expand his cabinet after winning the trust vote in the Assembly. “We will have about 15 days’ time to bring parties to our side and prove our strength. We are hopeful of getting support from smaller parties,” the source added.

In his first comments after the emphatic victory, Vijay thanked the people of Tamil Nadu for demonstrating “political victory for change” which many said was impossible.

“At this moment, I also send my love to our own people who forgot to vote for us in this election but will love us more in the coming times,” he added.

Leaders of Left parties said they have not received any communication from TVK but said they would take a call if the invitation is received.

Though no Congress MLAs met outgoing CM M K Stalin on Tuesday, the party’s decision to lob the ball into the court of the state Congress comes even as it does not want to appear to be ditching DMK at this moment as also to negotiate with TVK on the contours of the support, including the possibility of joining the government.

The decision came at a meeting chaired by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and attended by Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, General Secretaries K C Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh and Tamil Nadu in-charge Girish Chodankar.

The Congress is “determined not to have the BJP and its proxies run a government in Tamil Nadu”, he said, adding that Vijay has also spoken about drawing inspiration from “Perumthalaivar (great leader)” K Kamaraj.

Congress sources said it cannot push Vijay to the saffron camp. Before the elections, a section in the Congress had argued for going with TVK, which had offered around 75 seats to the party and slots in the government.

Congress leaders like Manickam Tagore and Praveen Chakraborty were batting for this change as DMK was not inclined to share power.

Rahul was also said to be inclined to take a new road in Tamil Nadu during the elections but Kharge and other senior leaders counseled against dumping DMK.