Actor and politician C Joseph Vijay finally found his way to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly as he delivered his maiden speech there as Chief Minister on Tuesday. It is now widely known how much effort and political maneuvering it took for Thalapathy Vijay to reach this result, as he worked to secure support from minor parties and project his majority.
Finally, after three failed visits to the Governor in a bid to demand formation of government in the state as he did not achieve majority even after Congress support, the newcomer managed to get support from minor parties and was sworn in as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on Sunday, May 10.
However, his challenges are far from over as the newly elected Prime Minister is yet to face a test in the Assembly on Wednesday, May 13, to prove his majority through a vote of confidence.
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Here’s what awaits Vijay next-
The floor test is pending in the Tamil Nadu assembly
The results of the Tamil Nadu state polls held in April led to a hung assembly for the first time since 1967, with no major alliance or party achieving a majority of 118 seats. However, Vijay’s TVK emerged as the single largest party with 108 seats, of which Vijay won two, and could not actually get 11 seats to claim a majority. Even after Congress supported five multilateral legislative agreements, it needed six more votes to demand formation of the government.
Also Read: AIADMK division on the cards? Vijay’s victory exposes the rebellion against EPS
This support finally came after smaller parties that had been holding their cards came close to the kingmakers and extended support to Vijay, helping him not only reach the majority mark but surpass it by 120 seats – CPI(2), CPI(M)(2), VCK(2) and IUML(2).
However, Vijay is yet to prove his majority on the Assembly floor on Wednesday, May 13.
TVK MLA was prevented from voting
If this year’s Tamil Nadu elections and the power struggle that followed have reminded the country of anything, it has to be the democratic principle of ‘every vote counts’. Just as the numbers are starting to favor Vijay, the Madras High Court has restrained TVK MLA Seenivasa Sethupathy from participating in tomorrow’s vote of confidence in the Tamil Nadu Assembly until further order.
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Why? Because again – every vote counts.
The TVK MLA won the Tirupattur assembly seat by just one vote against former DMK minister KR Periakaruppan, who claimed that he lost by one vote due to two constituencies having the same name ‘Tirupattur’. The court said the argument was appropriate for an interim order.
However, this setback may not affect TVK’s vote tally in the Assembly tomorrow as he will still have 118 votes to his name – after Sethupathy’s vote and appointment of TVK MLA JCD Prabhakar as Tamil Nadu Assembly president.
The AIADMK faction is offering support
The days when Vijay would scramble for support from smaller parties seem to have become a thing of the past as a faction of the AIADMK has extended support to Vijay claiming that a majority of MLAs from the party are on their side.
Also Read: AIADMK faction supports Vijay’s TVK after row with EPS: ‘We accept people’s mandate’
The dispute between AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami and other leaders including CV Shanmugam and SP Velumani has come to light as the two factions are now openly fighting over whether to support Vijay or not.
On Tuesday, Shanmugam congratulated the new Prime Minister and extended support to the government. “The people’s mandate is not for TVK. The mandate is for Vijay to become chief minister,” he said.
Shanmugam also claimed that their faction in the party had majority support of MLAs and that the EPS faction was seeking an alliance with the DMK, which he said would be against the founding principles of the party.
If the AIADMK faction decides to support Vijay on Wednesday in Tamil Nadu, he will comfortably win the confidence vote and continue to rule the state.
