Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 13: With the 47-member AIADMK legislature party split from the middle, the Tamilaga Vetrri Kazhagam (TVK) government headed by actor-turned-politician C Joseph Vijay on Wednesday comfortably won the trust vote in the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly receiving 144 votes in favour and 22 opposed with five members “abstaining” and the entire DMK group walking out before the confidence motion was put to vote.
Ensuring his safety, at least for the time being, ‘Thalapathy’ Vijay, as he is popularly called, breaks the 62-year old shackles during which Tamil Nadu in rotation was always ruled by one of the two Dravidian parties, the DMK or the AIADMK.
“The whistle (the TVK’s election symbol) has changed history,” Vijay, who has now completed his cinema-to-politics arc, said after the result. “We will call ourselves a minority government… a government that will protect the rights of minorities.”
The trust vote was required since the TVK did not have a majority on its own after results were announced on May 4. Vijay’s party swept 108 of 234 seats – an incredible return for a young party in a state driven by a political binary – but 10 short of the mark.
The TVK quickly received support from the Congress – five seats – and, after four days of bargaining and suspense, secured eight more seats from the Left front, the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, and the Indian Union of Muslim League.
In the House, the TVK in effect had only 105 MLAs; the party lost one vote to the Speaker’s chair, a second because Vijay resigned from one of the two seats he won, and a third because Sreenivasa Sethupathy R’s one-vote victory from Tiruppattur has been challenged. All 105, however, turned up and voted for Vijay.
Allies providing outside support – the Congress, the CPI, CPM, VCK, and IUML – had offered 13 seats between them, and delivered on that promise. A 14th vote came from the TTV Dhinakaran-led Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam’s sole MLA, who has since been thrown out of the party. Allied votes, therefore, gave the TVK 119 – a wafer-thin margin of victory. The boost, expected because of the churnings in the AIADMK ranks in the last few days, was from the AIADMK’s two dozen lawmakers. Commotion briefly broke out in the House as rebel AIADMK leader S.P. Velumani led all the rebel MLAs to vote in favour of the TVK.
Ahead of the commencement of voting, the Leader of the Opposition, Udhayanidhi Stalin, led a walkout of all the DMK MLAs along with the lone DMDK MLA, Premallatha Vijayakant, after giving a speech criticising the TVK Government. Mr Udhayanidhi assailed Chief Minister Vijay for meeting AIADMK rebels on May 12, and questioned if what is happening was “change” or “exchange.”
The vote has been settled but the bigger story is the split within the AIADMK camp. While 24 AIADMK MLAs voted for Vijay, a 25th (also seen as pro-TVK) abstained, defying party boss Edappadi K Palaniswami’s order and underlining a rift that threatens to tear one of the state’s two big Dravidian giants apart.
The rift became apparent last week as the AIADMK jostled for power and relevance, for this is a party in the doldrums amid a leadership crisis and a fourth consecutive election defeat.
One faction – led by CV Shanmugam – camped out at a Puducherry resort demanding EPS, as Palaniswami is called, announce support for the TVK. Publicly the demand was shut down and the party insisted ‘all is well’. EPS loyalists claimed the Puducherry camp was a precaution against ‘poaching’ by the TVK, which at the time was still hunting for eight seats. But behind the scenes the Shanmugam faction continued to grumble.
On Tuesday those complaints broke the surface with reports a group of AIADMK MLAs – led by Shanmugam and another senior leader, SP Velumani – was scheduled to meet Vijay and extend party support.
In comments to the press, Shanmugam pointed to four defeats – three to the DMK and one to the TVK – as his motivation, and to whispers of what would have been politically unprecedented – the DMK and AIADMK joining hands to defeat Vijay. He also stressed he had no intention of splitting the party, a statement that now sets up a dramatic internal battle with the EPS.
The AIADMK responded swiftly; a long X post slammed the breakaway leaders, reminding them they had been elected on party tickets. It also accused Shanmugam, Velumani and a third rebel leader of having ‘begged’ the TVK for ministerial posts.
The AIADMK dominated Tamil politics from 2006 to 2021 – party icon and ex-chief minister J Jayalalitha wrote the script for that success – but fell away after she died in December 2016. The party won the 2016 election thanks to a massive sympathy wave but lost the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the 2021 Assembly election to the DMK.
Expressing gratitude to the party leaders who supported TVK in the confidence motion. TVK leader Vijay, in a social media post, said, “We express our heartfelt gratitude to all esteemed party leaders who support us, and to all honourable Assembly members from those parties. At the same time, we convey our affection to our party Assembly members who always stand with us.”
Addressing journalists at his residence along with the group of rebel AIADMK MLAs, C.Ve. Shanmugam accused the party general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami of lying over the issue of signature of 47 MLAs on the resolution to not support TVK. “He (Mr Palaniswami) cannot claim so as no such meeting on a resolution took place. The letter given by Mr Palaniswami to the Speaker was forged,” added Mr Shanmugam.
Mr Palaniswami, while speaking after the conclusion of trust vote charged: “This government has been formed by luring some members with promises of ministerial posts and board appointments. Those members have now extended support to the resolutions brought by the Chief Minister. Instead of remaining loyal to the party, they have betrayed it. Their desire to become ministers has led them to act against the party leadership’s directives. Something unprecedented in the history of Tamil Nadu is happening now. It is disappointing that such developments are taking place within TVK right at the very beginning.”
The DMK president M.K. Stalin, in a social media post, accused those (TVK) who came to power promising “clean politics” of practicing “dirty politics” and alleged purchase of the split AIADMK. He noted that DMK MLAs boycotted the vote of confidence in line with the stance that the DMK would not be an obstacle to the formation of the TVK government.
He went on to add that even though the numbers required for the TVK-led government to remain stable were available due to the stance of DMK’s alliance parties’ support, TVK has purchased members of the split AIADMK. “If your beginning is like this, how will the end be? The people are also going to see what ‘Return Gift’ you are going to give to those members of the split AIADMK.”
Mr Palaniswami also questioned why the speaker Prabhakar gave a chance to S.P. Velumani (from the rebel faction) to speak which was against the rules of the Assembly.”
The Minister and TVK’s joint general secretary C.T.R. Nirmalkumar said: “The people of Tamil Nadu have shown their trust in our leader and they have voted for our leader. In the floor voting, we have shown our majority for the government. 144 MLAs have voted. This will be a people’s government. Our leaders will fulfil all the promises we have made during the election… People wanted a change in this election, and they voted for the change…”
In total, as many as 171 MLAs were present in the Assembly and participated in the trust vote after the DMK MLAs staged a walkout. Those in favour of the trust vote included TVK – 105, Congress – 5, CPI – 2, CPI (M) – 2, VCK – 2, IUML – 2, AIADMK (S.P. Velumani faction) – 25
- AMMK’s expelled MLA – 1
No. of MLAs who opposed the confidence motion – 22 (AIADMK’s Edappadi Palaniswami faction). No. of MLAs who ‘abstained’ from voting – 5, PMK – 4 and BJP – 1.
After the conclusion of trust vote, the Tamil Nadu Assembly was adjourned sine die.