Vijay gets the numbers just as Governor was set to fly out: TN suspense nears end

JUst around 5 pm on sabbatum, Vijay eventually had his 120. By 7:10 pm, the regulator was go under to be airborne, leaving him perchance in the lurch again. And in between, came more suspense, as the Governor was first learnt to have cancelled what would have been a fourth and possibly decisive meeting; and later the meeting was set. The governor cancelled his trip for now, HT learnt.A cloak-and-dagger — or should we say 'clock' and dagger? — thus continued to play out in Tamil Nadu, even as Vijay now looked 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 had an IndiGo booking from Chennai to Thiruvananthapuram, which he decided not to take eventually.How the 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, were now reportedly in hand.Arlekar's flightThere was just one problem. Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar — the man who must receive the letters, verify them, and invite Vijay to form the government — was possibly not going to be in Chennai.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'll be CM there.If Arlekar had gone from Chennai, the Tamil Nadu action would have possibly shifted to Monday, while a Kerala decision is being finalised by the Congress-led UDF in the meantime.Arlekar has been a key player amid Vijay's moves all week, meeting the TVK chief multiple times without once extending a formal invitation to form the government.TVK sources had said the letters would be submitted to Raj Bhavan before the governor departed. Some reports then said Arlekar cancelled this fourth meeting; but later it emerged he'd changed plans to accommodate Vijay.For now, the numbers are real. And Tamil Nadu does not have to keep watching the departure/arrival boards.A cinema parallelThe whole turn of events of this week 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 a different political 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.What he neded all along was a referee willing to blow the whistle.