TVK’s Vijay heads back to governor after Left, VCK and IUML pledge support

ENding years of political uncertainness, actor-politician C chief joseph Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) eventually crossed the subtle halfway mark on Friday and headed back to Lok Bhavan after the two Left parties, the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) pledged their support.Like the Congress, the four parties -- all of whom have two seats each -- were constituents of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA).Tamil Nadu’s Communist Party of India (CPI) state secretary M Veerapandiyan and CPI (Marxist) state secretary P Shanmugam announced their support for Vijay’s TVK on Friday afternoon, saying it was decided to keep the BJP out.“In Indian democracy, ups and downs are natural. The people have given an opportunity to the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam. We discussed that formally with the party committees and we have decided to provide support,” Veerapandiyan told a joint media briefing with Shanmugam.They also said the Left parties would not be part of the cabinet and would extend support from outside. Veerapandiyan said VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan had told them that he would go along with their decision. Later IUML also extended support to Vijay.The move provides the TVK with the critical numbers needed to break the deadlock and clear the path for government formation in Tamil Nadu. The letters of support came minutes before his third meeting with governor Rajendra Arlekar.Lok Bhavan (formerly known as Raj Bhavan) hadn’t invited the leader of TVK to form the government on the ground that his party had only 107 legislators and was short of a simple majority, even after the Congress had earlier extended support for its 5 legislators.Shanmugam said the governor should have invited TVK after Vijay staked claim on Wednesday since it was the single largest party and there was a risk that central rule would be imposed if the elected government wasn’t formed by May 10.“In the current situation, if a government is not formed by May 10th, governor’s rule is the only practical possibility,” he said, stressing that central rule would basically be BJP rule through the backdoor.“The most important objective of the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance is to defeat the BJP-AIADMK alliance,” Shanmugam said, underlining that they had not strayed from their beliefs.“With the aim of thwarting the objective of the BJP, the CPI and the CPI(M) have resolved to provide support for TVK to form the government. At the same time, we will not participate in the Cabinet. Both parties have decided to provide support from outside,” he said.CPI national secretary D Raja said the decision was taken to “have a stable, secular government”.Though the TVK has won 108 seats, it has an effective strength of 107 legislators since Vijay won from two seats, Tiruchirappalli East or Perambur. The five Congress MLAs and the eight MLAs from the four smaller parties raise the strength of the TVK-led combine to 120, well over the majority mark of 117 MLAs required to form the government in a 233-member assembly.