Chennai: The drama over Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) forming the next government in Tamil Nadu continued on Saturday before the clouds of uncertainty dissipated in the evening.
Tamil Nadu Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar gave the crucial nod, appointing actor-politician Vijay as the state’s new chief minister.
It was fourth time lucky for the Tamil superstar, who had made three futile visits to Lok Bhavan on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, unable to convince the Governor that he had the support of at least 118 legislators for the majority mark in the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly.
Vijay will be sworn in at 10 am on Sunday as the first non-Dravadian chief minister of Tamil Nadu after 59 years.
The venue is Nehru Indoor Stadium, which has been readied since May 5, the day after TVK emerged as the single largest party with 108 seats in what was one of the biggest election upsets post Independence.
However, Vijay’s party fell 10 short of the halfway mark and hectic parleys were on to get the support of some other parties to reach the magic number.
Congress, with 5 seats, immediately backed TVK, and so did parties like CPI, CPI(M) and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) with 2 members each.
But soon complications began as some parties sought to stop TVK from coming to power, and Vijay just couldn’t provide the Governor assurances from 118 MLAs.
On Saturday evening, Vijay met the Governor again — after Arlekar postponed his scheduled visit to Keralam – and submitted letters of support from 120 MLAs after the Congress, VCK, CPI and CPI(M) extended “unconditional support” to the TVK chief for formation of a coalition government.
