Vijay has the numbers just as Governor scheduled to fly out: A two-hour window opens

JUst around 5 pm on sat, Vijay eventually had his 120. By 7:10 pm, the regulator may be airborne, leaving him peradventure in the shift again, at least for now. A cloak-and-dagger — or should we say ‘clock’ and dagger? — continues to play out in Tamil Nadu, but Vijay now looks closer than ever to becoming chief minister.With the VCK and IUML finally in the fold, TVK has the numbers — but the man who must act on them has an IndiGo booking from Chennai to Thiruvananthapuram.How numbers stack upThe Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), allies formerly of the defeated DMK, both formally declared support for the TVK on Saturday evening, pushing Vijay's alliance tally past the 118-seat majority mark to a comfortable 120 in the 234-member assembly.The letters, so long awaited, many times rumoured, are now reportedly in hand.Will Arlekar take the flight?There is just one problem. Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar — the man who must receive them, verify them, and invite Vijay to form the government — may not be physically present for it.A BJP veteran from Goa, Arlekar has served as Kerala's governor since January 2025 and only took additional charge of Tamil Nadu as recently as March 2026. He is, in every constitutional sense, a man with one foot in each state. Kerala, too, has to have a new government soon, and the Congress is deciding who that'll be.Arlekar has been a key player amid Vijay's moves all week, meeting the TVK chief thrice in three days without once extending a formal invitation to form the government.TVK sources have said the letters will be submitted to Raj Bhavan before the Governor departs.If the letters miss the flight, the process resumes when Arlekar returns from Thiruvananthapuram. No date has been confirmed for that.For now, it is 5 pm. The numbers are real. The clock is running. And Tamil Nadu is watching the departure board.A cinema parallelThe whole turn of events has a cinematic similarity from Vijay's own filmography.When director Atlee put Vijay in a tracksuit and asked him to assemble a dysfunctional football team in the 2019 Tamil blockbuster ‘Bigil’ (whistle), few imagined it would double as a real-life instruction manual seven years later.Vijay has been running the same drill on the political different pitch this week.The arithmetic looks deceptively simple. Tamil Nadu's 234-member Assembly requires 118 for a majority. TVK won 108 seats — the single largest mandate in a hung house. After Vijay's victory from two constituencies (he must vacate one), the effective tally sits at 107.The shortfall is 11, the number of players you need to field a football team. Legally, he can do with 10, too, as the total voting members for a trust vote will also come down to 233 since Vijay cannot vote twice despite having two seats.He got nine from the Congress and Left parties, but two remained elusive, until Saturday.