No detours: On the Tamil Nadu elections, post-poll outcome

Subscribed with another email? Logout and Login with that one. Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription The View From India Looking at World Affairs from the Indian perspective. First Day First Show News and reviews from the world of cinema and streaming. Today's Cache Your download of the top 5 technology stories of the day. Science For All The weekly newsletter from science writers takes the jargon out of science and puts the fun in! Data Point Decoding the headlines with facts, figures, and numbers THEdge At the cutting edge of education and careers Health Matters Ramya Kannan writes to you on getting to good health, and staying there Gender Agenda Stories from beyond the binary. The Hindu On Books Books of the week, reviews, excerpts, new titles and features. The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) and its leader C. Joseph Vijay, who was sworn in as Chief Minister along with nine Ministers from the party on Sunday, took the shortest and straightest route to power. Falling 10 seats short of the 118-seat majority mark, the TVK secured the support of four ideologically aligned parties — the Congress (five MLAs), CPI(M), CPI, and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, or VCK (two each) — with the IUML’s two MLAs taking the tally to 121. The TVK had, soon after its formation, sought to position the Congress and the VCK as ideological partners; that it has now drawn support from them and the Left and the IUML, even though they contested within the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led coalition, is therefore not out of place. The alternative mooted by AIADMK leaders, and endorsed by some DMK leaders — an AIADMK government propped up by the DMK — would have been an immoral exercise. In any case, outgoing Chief Minister M.K. Stalin was against such a farcical twist. Meanwhile, by demanding written proof of 118 MLAs’ support before inviting the TVK, the single largest party, to form the government, Governor Rajendra Arlekar ignored the Sarkaria Commission framework — which prioritises the single largest party with outside support next only to a pre-poll alliance — and the Supreme Court’s ruling in Rameshwar Prasad (2006) that only the floor of the House can test a Ministry’s strength. The Congress, for its part, jumped at the offer opportunistically, pledging support to the TVK and committing to an alliance for local, Assembly and parliamentary elections. That it would so casually jeopardise a decades-old alliance with the DMK is unsurprising. The party contested the 2026 elections half-heartedly, divided at the top, and that ambivalence showed in its returns: in the 28 seats it contested, it polled just 28% of the vote — the second-lowest share within the DMK-led coalition; only the late-entrant DMDK did worse. It was also short-sighted, given that this alliance helped the INDIA bloc win all 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu in 2024. The Left and VCK lent support to the TVK while citing the need for a stable government and reiterating their partnership with the DMK against communal forces. The elections produced Tamil Nadu’s first hung verdict in decades, and the response to it was a test of constitutional propriety and political character. Despite an avoidable delay, a TVK-led government has eventually taken charge. It is now incumbent upon Mr. Vijay to build on the foundations laid by Dravidian governments, under whose stewardship Tamil Nadu has emerged as one of the front-runners of the Indian economy by prioritising industrial development and socio-economic equity. Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam / Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections 2026 / Indian National Congress / Communist Party of India -Marxist / Communist Party of India / Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi / Indian Union Muslim League / Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam / All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam / Supreme Court / Governor / election / Desiya Murpokku Dravidar Kazhagam / government / economy (general) / industrial production Copyright© 2026, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. Terms & conditions | Institutional Subscriber Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

No detours: On the Tamil Nadu elections, post-poll outcome

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​No detours: On the Tamil Nadu elections, post-poll outcome

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No detours: On the Tamil Nadu elections, post-poll outcome