Vijay Takes Oath as Tamil Nadu CM, Faces Crucial Floor Test Next

After a short but intense wait which included three unsuccessful visits to the Governors House ‘Thalapathy’ Vijay finally took oath as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on Sunday. In what was a culmination of the actor-turned-politician’s efforts for the last three months, he delivered his maiden speech in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly today.

For a while Vijay’s hopes of forming a government in the state were clouded as his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) fell short of the majority mark even after support from the Congress. But, after garnering the backing of smaller parties the debutant staked a solid claim to lead the state.

Though his challenges are not yet over as his government still has to survive a floor test and survive a vote of confidence in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, May 13.   

The Floor Test

The 2026 Tamil Nadu state polls led to a hung assembly where no single party crossed the simpe majority mark of 118. Vijay’s TVK emerged as the single largest party winning 108 seats while former CM Stalin’s DMK came second by winning 59 seats. Vijay himself won 2 seats, Perambur and Trichy, out of which he had to vacate one. This left the TVK needing support of 11 more MLAs to form a government.

The support of the 5 Congress MLAs, who broke their decades long alliance with the DMK, was not enough to cross the majority mark. But after deliberations and consultations with the smaller parties Vijay managed to gather their support. Thus, the CPI (2), CPI(M) (2), VCK (2) and IUML (2) joined hands with TVK to cross the majority mark with 120 seats.

An MLA Barred From Voting

In another blow to the TVK its MLA Seenivasa Sethupathy was restrained by the  Madras High Court from participating in the floor test.

The TVK MLA had won the election from the Tirupattur assembly seat by just one vote against former DMK minister and legislator KR Periakaruppan. The DMK leader challenged the election in the Madras High Court.

This is unlikely to affect the result of the floor test as Vijay’s party would still enjoy the support of 118 MLAs after counting out Sethupathy and JCD Prabhakar who was elected as the speaker of the assembly.

The AIADMK Split

Now that Vijay has finally collected enough support to back his chief ministerial bid, another positive development has taken place in his favour. A faction from the AIADMK led by CV Shanmugam and SP Velumani has come out to support him. This comes after reports of a rift between Eddapadi K Palaniswami and other AIADMK leaders after the former’s purported attempts to form a government with arch rivals DMK.

The Shanmugam led faction reportedly enjoys the support of 30 out of 47 AIADMK legislators.

With the support of the breakaway AIADMK faction Vijay would be able to comfortably pass the trust vote and could strengthen the government’s stability.