The Congress party has announced its full support for Tamil Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) leader Vijay to become the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
This alliance is critical for government formation in the state, as it seeks to create a majority coalition that prevents the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its proxies from taking power.
Following the 2026 Tamil Nadu assembly election, TVK won 108 seats in the 234-member Assembly [1]. However, the majority mark required to form a government is 118 seats [2]. Congress, which won five seats in the election [3], handed a letter of full support to Vijay on May 7, 2026 [4].
Girish Chodankar, the Congress Tamil Nadu in-charge, said the party hopes other organizations will also back TVK. He said the party expects the Governor to invite Vijay to take the oath as Chief Minister soon.
The move comes after coordination between senior Congress leadership, including President Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, and General Secretary K.C. Venugopal. Vijay said he is grateful to the Congress leadership for their support.
A Congress spokesperson said the mandate in Tamil Nadu is for a secular government, and the party is determined to keep the BJP out of power. This strategic alignment allows TVK to move closer to the necessary seat threshold to lead the state.
The arrangement follows a period of intensifying alliance talks and cabinet discussions. While some reports differed on the direction of the correspondence, the party confirmed the exchange of support to stabilize the transition of power.
“The mandate in Tamil Nadu is for a secular government and we are determined not to have BJP and its proxies run the government.”
The alliance between Congress and TVK represents a strategic consolidation of secular forces in Tamil Nadu. By backing Vijay, Congress is leveraging its small seat count to act as a kingmaker, prioritizing the exclusion of the BJP over holding the Chief Minister's office itself. This move stabilizes TVK's path to the 118-seat majority and signals a shift in the state's political landscape toward a new leadership coalition.
