Two Tamil Nadu Congress members will be sworn in as ministers in the Vijay government tomorrow, party general secretary KC Venugopal said on Wednesday. MLAs Rajesh Kumar and P Vishwanathan will be part of the Tamil Nadu government, Venugopal said.
“This is a historic occasion for us, as the Congress party joins the Tamil Nadu government after a long gap of 59 years,” Venugopal wrote in a post on X, extending his best wishes to the two leaders.
Earlier in the day, TVK asked its alliance partners to join the government led by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay, party general secretary Aadhav Arjuna said.
The Minister of Public Works and Sports Development Department said that the Prime Minister’s intention is for leaders and parties working on the basis of social justice to join.
“The Prime Minister will formally announce it (details of lawmakers joining the government). He stressed that the alliance parties should join the government. Likewise, the Left parties have decided to extend external support to us. We will always respect that. This government will be a government for social justice and we stand firm on secular politics,” Arjuna told the media.
“The party (TVK) has invited Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) chief Thol Thirumavavalavan to participate in the cabinet. We humbly request that our Muslim brothers from the Indian Muslim League (IUML) also be in the cabinet. We have assured this to the leaders,” he said.
“The Prime Minister feels that the Cabinet should be like a family. We have expressed our desire that everyone be it Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, IUML or Congress should participate in the Cabinet,” he said.
The Congress, with its five MLAs, was among the first parties to extend support to Vijay-led TVK after it lacked majority strength to form the government after the counting of votes for the May 4 Assembly elections. Over the course of about a week, other parties joined in and extended support to the actor-politician’s party, enabling him to form a government in Tamil Nadu after an impressive performance in the first poll.
Meanwhile, trouble seems to be brewing for newly sworn-in Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay, as he has received a warning from one of his partners in the coalition government – the Communist Party of India (Maoist) – against absorbing its rival AIADMK in the state government that was formed after days of struggling to get the required support after the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) won 108 seats in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, 10 short of the majority mark.
