Twenty-four AIADMK MLAs voted in favour of Vijay, going against party chief Edappadi K. Palaniswami’s directive and exposing internal divisions that could further deepen the crisis within one of Tamil Nadu’s two major Dravidian parties.
‘Thalapathy’ Vijay remains politically secure – at least for now. The superstar-turned-politician, who reshaped Tamil Nadu’s political landscape by leading the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam to victory in last month’s election and ending the 62-year dominance of the DMK and AIADMK, was confirmed as the state’s new chief minister on Wednesday after surviving a dramatic trust vote.
Vijay secured the backing of 144 legislators, while 22 voted against him and five remained neutral. The result came after the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and its 59 MLAs staged a walkout, while the 47 members of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) had been instructed to vote against the motion.
“The whistle has changed history,” Vijay said after the result, referring to the TVK’s election symbol. Marking the culmination of his transition from cinema to politics, he added, “We will call ourselves a minority government – a government that will safeguard the rights of minorities.”
The trust vote became necessary because the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) fell short of a clear majority after the May 4 election results. The party won 108 of the state’s 234 seats – a remarkable performance for a relatively new political outfit in a state long dominated by two major parties – but remained 10 seats short of the required number.
TVK soon secured the backing of the Congress, which held five seats, and after several days of negotiations and uncertainty, gained support from the Left Front, the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), adding eight more legislators to its side.
The Numbers
The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) effectively had 105 MLAs during the trust vote. The party lost one vote after a member assumed the Speaker’s position, another after Vijay resigned from one of the two constituencies he had won, and a third because the narrow one-vote victory of Sreenivasa Sethupathy R from Tiruppattur remains under legal challenge.
All 105 legislators turned up and voted in favour of Vijay.
The TVK’s supporting allies – the Congress, CPI, CPM, VCK, and IUML – together contributed 13 votes as promised. An additional vote came from the lone MLA of TTV Dhinakaran-led Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK).
With allied backing, the TVK’s tally reached 119, giving the party only a slender majority.
The decisive boost, however – though perhaps not entirely unexpected – came from two dozen AIADMK legislators who backed Vijay during the trust vote.
On the other side, the 17 AIADMK MLAs who remained loyal to Edappadi K. Palaniswami voted against Vijay. Meanwhile, four MLAs from the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), along with the BJP’s lone legislator, chose to remain neutral.
While the trust vote outcome has now been decided, the larger political story emerging from the episode is the growing divide within the AIADMK camp.
The AIADMK Vote
A total of 24 AIADMK MLAs voted in support of Vijay, while another legislator believed to be sympathetic to the TVK abstained. Their move went against party chief Edappadi K. Palaniswami’s directive and highlighted a widening split that could further weaken one of Tamil Nadu’s two major Dravidian parties.
The internal divisions became increasingly visible last week as the AIADMK struggled to retain both influence and unity following a leadership crisis and its fourth straight electoral defeat.
One faction, led by CV Shanmugam, reportedly stayed at a resort in Puducherry while pressing EPS – as Palaniswami is popularly known – to officially extend support to the TVK. Although the party publicly dismissed reports of infighting and maintained that “all is well,” leaders loyal to EPS claimed the Puducherry gathering was intended to prevent possible “poaching” attempts by the TVK, which was still searching for eight additional votes at the time.
However, dissatisfaction within the Shanmugam faction continued to simmer behind the scenes.
Those tensions surfaced openly on Tuesday amid reports that a group of AIADMK MLAs, led by CV Shanmugam and senior leader SP Velumani, was preparing to meet Vijay and formally extend support to him on behalf of the party.