Opinion

Enter TVK, exit Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu

The 2026 Tamil Nadu election may mark the beginning of the post-DMK-AIADMK political era

May 11, 2026

Tamil Nadu witnesses a major political realignment after TVK victory

Sunday’s swearing-in of C. Joseph Vijay (Vijay to fans and followers), as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai that resembled a “Miracle Crusade” meeting held by evangelists for proselytization. Pastor A Chandrasekhar, the evangelist movie maker who is also the father of Joseph Vijay, led the entourage of the film star who assumed office as the first-ever Christian chief minister of Tamil Nadu.

What looked interesting was the superstar of Tamil moviedom swearing in the name of “Andavar” instead of Kadavul, the Tamil word to denote God. “Ideally, it should have been Kadavul because in Tamil Nadu, the word Andavar has a Christian connotation,” said N Gopalaswamy, former Chief Election Commissioner of India. Told PGurus.

There are dubious and humorous factors behind the formation of the Joseph Vijay-led government. Since the TVK political outfit launched by the film star could win only 108 seats in the 234-member House, the Governor Rajendra Arlekar had reservations in appointing Joseph Vijay as chief minister and asked him to furnish the list of 118 members who are supporting the TVK leader.

Except for the Congress, which was the first political party to discard the Congress bandwagon and join the TVK, extending wholehearted support, the support from other parties, CPI, CPI(M), Muslim League, and VCK were not forthcoming. Hence, there was an element of uncertainty about the government to be formed by Joseph Vijay. The Congress was the first party to hand over the letter indicating the “unconditional” support to the TVK. It is learnt that Governor Arlekar insisted that Joseph Vijay get the letters of support from other parties that had offered support. It was only by late Saturday that the CPI(M), the CPI, the Muslim League, and VCK handed over the letters of support to Joseph Vijay, who in turn passed them on to Lok Bhavan (as Raj Bhavans are known now).

The Communists and other fringe parties blamed the Governor for delaying the swearing-in, as they feared that Arlekar was playing to the tune of the Centre. But what the Governor did was to preempt moves for horse trading. Despite the caution, there are reports that the lone AMMK MLA S Kamaraj, was kidnapped by the TVK leaders and forcefully extracted his signature on the letter of support. Kamaraj somehow managed to escape from the TVK activists and reached the safe house of TTV Dinakaran, his savior. The AMMK founder had filed complaints with the Governor and the Guindy Police Station about the kidnapping, and an investigation is on.

It is hoped that the government led by Joseph Vijayan would survive for the time being. But Thol Thirumavalavan, the VCK founder who extended support to TVK, has asked his pound of flesh, if the grapevine is to be believed. Thirumavalavan wants the post of deputy chief minister as well as the second seat from where Joseph Vijay won, which he has to vacate. The second MLA from the VCK, too, should be made a minister, while Thirumavalavan, who is not a member of the House, should be fielded from the second constituency when it falls vacant. Reports going around tell that actress Trisha is likely to be fielded from that vacant constituency, which means Valavan has to find another safe constituency.

The interesting fact is that post-1967, Tamil Nadu is all set to witness a coalition government at Fort Saint George (seat of power in Chennai). Another interesting development is unfolding in AIADMK as nearly 35 MLAs have revolted against party general secretary Edappadi Palaniswami and are likely to switch over to the TVK camp. If it materializes, Joseph Vijay would government survive the full tenure while the AIADMK and Palaniswamy are likely to be obliterated from the political landscape of Tamil Nadu.

The DMK supremo, M K Stalin, extended best wishes to the Muslim League, the Communists, and the VCK (which were elected as alliance partners of the DMK) in their new role as torch bearers of Joseph Vijay.[1]

“These party leaders had the decency to inform us that they are joining the TVK camp to keep the BJP and RSS away from Tamil Nadu, and I can understand their sincerity. They will come back to us in an hour of crisis,” said Stalin. But he was jolted and shocked by the attitude of the Congress leaders who jumped ship and joined the TVK bandwagon without telling him. “The Congress is infamous as backstabbers and cheats. They won the five seats only because of the support given by the DMK. But they are ungrateful and thankless,” a visibly upset Stalin told reporters.

“Congress has failed to change its old political character. It secured one Rajya Sabha seat and 28 Assembly constituencies as part of the DMK-led alliance, yet shifted towards an alternative front within days, undermining the victory achieved through the hard work of alliance cadres,” the resolution adopted by the DMK executive read[2].

The Congress scion Rahul Gandhi attended Sunday’s swearing-in function of Joseph Vijay at Chennai. With both his hands in the pockets of his trousers, Gandhi sat grim-faced in the chair meant for him. The question that was haunting him was what the Congress would do in the eventuality of the AIADMK’s 36 MLAs declaring their support to Joseph Vijay.

The 2026 Assembly election marked the closure of the political innings of Stalin, Palaniswami, and, of course, Nainar Nagendran (BJP). Nagendran has proved beyond doubt that he was incapable of leading the Hindutva party, and there are only two options for him. Either get kicked upstairs as a member of Tamil Nadu BJP’s Marg Darshak Mandal or rejoin AIADMK!

The Tamil Nadu BJP cadres are crying to bring back K Annamalai as the party president. There are some more prospective candidates fit enough to be elected in Marg Darshak Mandal: Tamilissai Sounderarajan, Vanathi Srinivasan, and Narayanan Tiruppathi. Since they have proved that they are thoroughly incompetent to strengthen the BJP, they should be displayed as members of the MDM community. Tamil Nadu BJP needs a generational change and a shift to the younger generation. The names mentioned above are not capable of bringing encomiums to the BJP. The BJP has a bright future, provided the party leadership begins work immediately for the next election. The booth committees of the party remain non-existent in the state, though Amit Shah has been telling the party cadres and leaders to strengthen the same. More than this, the turf war between senior leaders in the party has made it weak beyond salvage.

These senior leaders should understand the ground reality that they are incompetent to win any election and withdraw gracefully from leadership. The party’s policymakers have showered them with governorship, chairmanship, and constitutional positions, as they were aware of their weaknesses and inefficiency.

Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.

Reference:

[1] ‘Failed to change its political character’: DMK slams Congress, passes resolution over TVK support – May 07, 2026, ToI

[2] Stalin slams Cong for severing ties; lauds Left, VCK – May 10, 2026, HT

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