Power-sharing realities: Why DMK’s legacy secular alliance finally collapsed

Chennai: From the time he formally launched the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) in October 2024, Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay’s intention was to break the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) and bring constituents such as the Congress and the VCK to his side.

Initially, Vijay’s offer to share power with political parties that accepted his leadership failed to gain traction in the run-up to the April 23 assembly elections. However, a hung assembly -- in which the TVK won an impressive 108 seats but fell just short of a majority -- made it easier for these parties to dump the DMK and search for greener pastures.

With the VCK and the IUML declaring their intention to join the Vijay government, the Left parties providing outside support, and two Congress MLAs already inducted as ministers, the eight-year-old SPA now stands dismantled.

TVK’s offer to share power has always been irresistible for parties like the Congress and VCK, which represents the Dalit community. Dalit parties have never been able to be part of any government in Tamil Nadu because the major Dravidian parties -- the DMK and AIADMK -- traditionally excluded allies from cabinet dispensations, despite contesting elections as a bloc.

Vijay has installed the first coalition government in Tamil Nadu in many decades and it is likely to become a norm in the future, rather than an exception.

The DMK has been left with only a couple of alliance partners, such as the late actor Vijayakanth’s DMDK and Vaiko’s MDMK. Since 2018, DMK President M K Stalin had flaunted the SPA as an “ideological alliance” rather than a mere political combine stitched together for convenience, especially as the alliance won every election from 2019 to 2024.

But that juggernaut came to a halt in the 2026 polls when Vijay’s TVK registered an emphatic victory just two years after its launch.

The legacy alliance has now collapsed, with nearly all of its “secular” parties jumping ship to the TVK, which took a conscious call not to induct MLAs from the splinter AIADMK group into the Cabinet.

By keeping the rebel AIADMK MLAs out, even though they supported him during the May 13 floor test, Vijay has sent a clear message to his new alliance partners: he intends to keep the BJP and the AIADMK at a distance, and proving that they can trust him.

By leaving the rebels in the lurch, he has also refused to give the AIADMK a lifeline -- especially since the TVK has been actively appropriating the legacy of the late M G Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa.

Through this strategic move, Vijay has not merely convinced the VCK and the IUML to join his ministry, but he has also laid the foundation for a rainbow alliance for the 2029 Lok Sabha polls, even though those elections are three years away.

It is clear that Vijay wants to stitch together a “secular” alliance under his leadership and isolate the DMK. Securing the Congress on his side is a major plus for Vijay, helping him convince the Left, VCK, and IUML to remain aligned with him for future elections.

For the DMK, this is a deeply challenging phase. Having been thrown out of power by a fledgling party is a major setback, though the organisation has faced even more difficult phases in the past. Nonetheless, the party leadership seems to have come to the painful realisation that it may not have many alliance partners in the near future.

In fact, DMK leader Kanimozhi Karunanidhi did wonder earlier this week whether the time has come to think if the party needs an alliance to fight elections, while asking cadres to strengthen “ourselves” for facing the future.

R Kannan, biographer of Dravidian legends C N Annadurai and M G Ramachandran, told DH that Vijay's decision to not induct AIADMK rebels into his cabinet shows that, essentially, he wants to practice principled politics and did not want to leave a bad taste in the voters' mouths.

“The second goal seems to be further weakening the DMK and isolating the party from secular parties. The fact that a kosher Muslim outfit like the IUML and the VCK have agreed to join the cabinet shows that Vijay is essentially planning for the long term. He seems to be more politically shrewd and prudent than anyone would have expected him to be,” Kannan added.