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There was a lot of turmoil in the political circles since the formation of the new government in Tamil Nadu, but now the ongoing discord within the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has come to the fore, which has brought a major upheaval in the politics of the state. According to sources, the party seems to be clearly divided into two groups. Amidst this political turmoil, AIADMK leader CV Shanmugam has announced his support to Chief Minister Vijay’s Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) just before the floor test to be held on May 13.

In fact, this split within the party has made the political situation in the state even more interesting. A faction led by AIADMK MLAs Velumani and CV Shanmugam has announced support to Chief Minister Vijay’s party TVK. The MLAs of this group will soon meet Chief Minister Vijay to extend their support to the Tamil Nadu government. Explaining the reason behind this decision, Shanmugam said that party chief Palaniswami wanted to form an alliance with Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) to form the government, but his proposal was rejected by the majority of the party members and it was strongly opposed. Meanwhile, AIADMK MLA Velumani has demanded convening of the party’s General Council meeting with immediate effect, which has further strengthened the tension within the party.

Fully accept the mandate: CV Shanmugam

Justifying his decision, CV Shanmugam said, ‘We fully accept the public mandate. The people’s mandate is not specifically for TVK, but to see Vijay as the Chief Minister. We congratulate Chief Minister Vijay and extend our full support to the TVK government led by him. Taking his point further, he said that AIADMK was established in opposition to DMK and for the last 53 years their politics has been against DMK. Given this long history, Palaniswami’s proposal to form an AIADMK government with the support of the DMK was against the core principles of the party. Shanmugam warned that if AIADMK had formed an alliance with DMK, the party would have ceased to exist.

Decided to support TVK

Shanmugam refused to accept this situation and said that AIADMK is currently without any alliance. He believes that now the party’s focus should be on reviving and strengthening its internal strength. With this in mind, he has decided to extend his support to Vijay’s TVK, which has won the assembly elections.

If we look at the results of the assembly elections, TVK emerged as the largest party with 108 seats, although it fell 10 seats short of the majority mark. Chief Minister Vijay has won two assembly seats, out of which he will have to vacate one seat, reducing TVK’s tally to 107. TVK’s allies include 5 MLAs from Congress, 2 each from CPI, CPI(M), VCK and IUML. Including all these, the total number of alliance has reached 120, which is the required figure for majority. Talking about the opposition, DMK has won 59 seats, AIADMK has won 47 seats and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won only one seat. In such a situation, a section of AIADMK supporting TVK will prove to be a big relief for Chief Minister Vijay’s government and will help in bringing political stability in the state.