Vijay’s circle takes shape as numbers settle, coalition math begins in Tamil Nadu
Sources said TVK’s own expectation was about 60 seats. If it remains short of a majority, party to look beyond “AIADMK and BJP” for support
TVK workers hold photographs of actor-turned-politician Vijay, as they celebrate early leads and results in Tamil Nadu polls. (AP) As the contours of Tamil Nadu’s most unexpected verdict sharpened through the day, power began to gather – quietly, almost cautiously – around Vijay’s residence in Panayur here.
At 106 seats in all, with some of them still leads, the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) may fall short of the 118 required for a majority. With the DMK and AIADMK far behind at 73 and 55 seats, respectively, the TVK’s narrow gap to a win prompted feelers from across parties by Monday evening.
The Congress, expected to win around 5 seats, along with the VCK (2), CPI (2) and CPI(M) (3) are emerging as potential partners.
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Senior leaders in the TVK indicated that the party would look “beyond the AIADMK and BJP” for support – an early signal of the ideological and political lines it may seek to draw.
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Inside Panayur, however, the scene was less crowded than the moment might suggest. The core group around Vijay remains small, almost deliberately so. Among those coordinating with officials and shaping early decisions are Bussy Anand, Aadhav Arjuna, C T R Nirmal Kumar, K Sengottaiyan, and Rajmohan – a mix of leaders with political experience and some recent entrants to the public imagination. Alongside them are some newer figures who rose to prominence during the campaign: Prabhu Parvesh, V S Babu (who defeated Chief Minister M K Stalin from Kolathur) as well as J C T Prabhakar (Thousand Lights seat) and P Venkataraman (Mylapore), who breached long-held DMK bastions in Chennai.
For a party that itself did not expect to be in a position of power quite so soon – senior insiders admit that as late as Sunday night, expectations hovered around 60 seats and Leader of the Opposition role for Vijay – the transition has the feel of a system catching up with an outcome.
Government machinery, for its part, has begun moving with procedural calm. Senior police officials, including Additional and Joint Commissioners and a Deputy Commissioner for Law and Order, visited Panayur to establish contact points and brief the TVK’s inner circle on security and transition protocols.
“Once there is clarity on the majority, the Chief Secretary and DGP will call on him formally,” a senior official said, describing the current phase as “preparatory, not declaratory”. If the numbers stabilise quickly, an informal timeline circulating among officials suggests a swearing-in as early as Friday.
Yet beneath the apparent speed lies a slower, more complicated question: how a party with limited administrative experience will assume control of a deeply institutionalised state.
Senior bureaucrats, speaking privately, expect a period of adjustment. “It will take at least three months for systems to stabilise,” one senior IAS officer said, pointing to the need to align police, revenue and administrative hierarchies with a new political centre. Some continuity is also likely; sources indicated that the current DGP may not be immediately replaced.
In effect, the state may run briefly in a dual rhythm: political change above, bureaucratic continuity below.
The coalition conversation, too, seems to be emphasising both urgency and caution. TVK sources suggested that the Congress and VCK could be offered Cabinet roles – which would mark the Congress’s return to the state Cabinet for the first time since 1967 – while other parties like the CPI, CPI(M) and IUML may extend support from outside.
Meanwhile, in a different part of the city, a stillness seemed to envelop the outgoing CM’s residence. Stalin remained at home through the morning, with no political visitors, before making a brief visit to the DMK headquarters, Anna Arivalayam, in the evening.
At Panayur, the visitors were few, and carefully filtered, though hundreds of fans waited outside. Actress Trisha, a close associate of Vijay, was among the few confirmed visitors. An astrologer, Radhan Pandit, was also seen entering the residence. Sources said Vijay’s parents were expected to visit later in the night.
Tamil Nadu, after half a century of political familiarity, appeared to be preparing – carefully, and with some disbelief – for something it has not had in a long time: a government led by someone who did not rise through the system, but arrived outside it and was let in.
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