Vijay's TVK Wins Trust Vote, Here's How it Unfolded

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and TVK head C. Vijay Joseph has won the trust vote in the Tamil Nadu Assembly. His government received 144 votes well past the majority mark of 118. Twenty-two MLAs voted against the government while five MLAs abstained from voting.

The DMK and its 59 MLAs led by Leader of Opposition Udhyanidhi Stalin staged a walkout before the trust vote.

"The whistle (the TVK's election symbol) has changed history," Vijay said after the result. "We will call ourselves a minority government… a government that will protect the rights of minorities."

The Numbers

The actor turned politician’s TVK won 108 seats in the recently concluded Tamil Nadu Assembly Election. Thus, requiring support from other parties to cross the majority mark of 118.

The TVK lost three more seats; one due to Vijay’s resignation from one of the two seats he won, the second as JCD Prabhakar’s election as the speaker and the last due to a Madras High Court order restricting Sreenivasa Sethupathy R due to his one-vote victory from Tiruppattur being challenged.

After support from the Congress and other smaller parties like the CPI, CPI(M), VCK and the IUML his government barely reached the majority mark. But, Vijay received a boost as 25 rebel AIADMK MLAs voted in his favour.          

The BJPs lone legislator and 4 PMK MLAs abstained while the 22 MLAs still in the Palaniswami camp voted against the government.

AIADMK Split on Display

The unfolding AIADMK split became a key development of the trust vote. Eddapadi K Palaniswami, the AIADMK chief said in his speech that the party would vote against the TVK government. But defying Palaniswami’s call the leader of the rebel AIADMK faction SP Velumani said AIADMK MLAs will vote for the TVK government.

After the dust settled it turned out that the AIADMK vote in the assembly was split. 25 rebel AIADMK MLAs, less than the 30 that they claimed to have the support of, Voted in favour of TVK.

This ongoing split could drag on as the rebels apparently don’t have the support of two-thirds of existing AIADMK MLAs required to be recognized as the legislature party.

The crisis in the party comes amid disaffection against Palaniswami’s leadership which has seen the AIADMK lose 4 consecutive elections.

Astrologer Appointment Sparks Debate

Another matter hotly debated in the assembly before the trust vote was Vijay’s appointment of Radhan Pandit, his personal astrologer, as an OSD to the government.

DMDK's chief Premlatha Vijayakanth slammed the chief minister for the appointment of astrologer Radhan Pandit as an advisor. "What message are you sending with this appointment? If he is your astrologer, keep him in your personal life," she said.

Several of Vijay's allies, including the Congress, also criticised the move as they called it instituionalising the practice.