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Four allies of MK Stalin's Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) extended support to 'Thalapathy' Vijay, ending the days-long impasse over government formation in Tamil Nadu. But, only one ally — the Congress — drew the ire of Stalin and other INDIA bloc partners for backing Vijay.
Soon after the Tamil Nadu Election Results 2026 showed a massive win for Vijay's Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), the Congress was quick to sever 55-year-old ties with the DMK and join hands with Vijay to help him form the state government. Despite the Congress's backing, Vijay fell five short of the magic number 118.
Among several others who criticised the Congress over the move were MK Stalin, Congress leader Mani Shanker Aiyer and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav.
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The INDIA bloc, particularly the DMK, criticized Congress for hastily severing ties with the DMK and backing Vijay's TVK without prior consultation. In contrast, allies like CPI and CPI(M) held discussions with MK Stalin before offering support.
The Sarkaria Commission Report (1983) suggests that if no single party has an absolute majority, the Governor should invite the largest single party to form the government with the support of others.
Vijay's TVK has 108 seats in the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly. The majority mark required to form the government is 118 seats.
Despite TVK emerging as the single-largest party with 108 seats and securing support from Congress (5 MLAs), their combined strength of 113 is still five seats short of the 118-seat majority mark.
Governors have previously invited parties to form governments without a clear majority, such as in Maharashtra (2019) and Karnataka (2018), where leaders were sworn in before proving their majority on the floor of the House.
Later, after much deliberation, the CPI and CPI(M) announced "unconditional support" to the TVK on Friday. Several leaders claimed that the VCK is also ready to join the alliance, helping Vijay to comfortably cross the majority mark of 118 MLAs.
All three are allies of the DMK in Tamil Nadu, but no criticism has yet been levelled against them. Why so?
One argument is that Congress chose to walk away from the alliance with the DMK in a hasty manner, without consulting or holding meetings with DMK chief MK Stalin.
However, the CPI, CPIM and the VCK held lengthy discussions and even met Stalin before taking the crucial decision. CPI State Secretary Veerapandian said in a press conference on Friday, "We have taken a decision in a democratic way."
On Wednesday, DMK spokesperson Saravanan Annadurai launched a scathing attack on the Congress, calling the decision "myopic" and accusing them of having "backstabbed" INDIA alliance partners.
"I think this is a very short-sighted, myopic stand taken by the Congress, which they will regret...because of this decision by the Congress, it has made them a very unstable partner. The perception that is out in the entire country is that Congress cannot be trusted," Annadurai said.
"The Congress has offered its support to the TVK, and that is why we called it backstabbing...," Annadurai said, adding that the reasons cited by the party to "flip sides" are not convincing.
"If Congress is going to be so untrustworthy, just within a day of the results, they are openly going against the mandate. What impact will it create in the minds of Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav, Uddhav Thackeray and all the others? We have never failed the Congress," Annadurai added.
Not just the DMK leader, but veteran Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar also slammed the party's alliance with the TVK as "dreadful".
Aiyar told PTI that the Congress's decision to jump ship immediately after an election fought with the DMK to plunge into a relationship with the very TVK that took "us on in the 23 assembly segments we lost and the five we won only days ago" was "dreadful".
INDIA bloc divided again?
With the Congress' abrupt shift towards the TVK, the fissure in the INDIA alliance, once again, came out in the open.
The Congress had been one of the DMK's longest-standing alliance partners. On several occasions, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi shared a warm rapport with Stalin, hailing him as an "elder brother."
Mani Shankar Aiyar, in an interview with PTI, even said, "How can the Congress justify letting down a partner who, alone in the INDIA bloc, proclaimed 'brother' Rahul Gandhi as prime minister."
In a move that signals a formal collapse of one of the INDIA bloc's most stable pillars, the DMK on Friday officially requested a separate seating arrangement in the Lok Sabha, moving away from its long-time ally, the Congress.
Meanwhile, Akhilesh Yadav launched a veiled attack on the Congress, saying "we are not the ones who leave during difficult times." Yadav also posted on X photographs of his meeting with Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata and with DMK chief MK Stalin.
'Forming-breaking alliances natural in politics'
Amidst the criticism, Congress MP Jothimani justified the party's breakaway move towards TVK, stressing that in politics, "forming" and "breaking" alliances is "natural."
In a detailed post on X, the Congress MP recalled a previous instance from 2014, when the DMK had "expelled" Congress from the alliance, following which it was forced to contest alone. She stated that Congress didn't criticise the DMK at that time and considered it a "political move."
"In politics, alliances forming and breaking is only natural. Even the DMK, just a week before announcing the 2014 parliamentary elections, expelled the Congress party from a long-standing alliance. We were suddenly pushed into contesting alone. For that, we didn't harshly criticise the DMK. We understood it as a political stance," Jothimani said.
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