Finally, the TVK government led by C Joseph Vijay has taken charge in Tamil Nadu. The hurdles were cleared after four small parties, each having two MLAs, extended “outside support” to the new government.
But as usually happens in such outside-support arrangements, trouble signs appeared on the very first day itself.
As the saying goes, the nature of the marriage is known on the wedding day itself. In the same way, these parties started expressing dissatisfaction from the oath-taking day.
Now, one question is being discussed in political circles: Did Vijay somehow manage to get support letters from these four parties only to cross the oath-taking hurdle?
Did he think that once he becomes Chief Minister, he can play his own political game and build a stable government later?
Governor R V Arlekar put Vijay through all possible tension before inviting him to form the government. Though inviting a party to form the government is part of the Governor’s discretion, the way he handled the situation became controversial.
Vijay, as the leader of the single largest party, sought an opportunity to form the government and prove his strength on the floor of the Assembly. But the Governor refused.
Even when Vijay was short by just two seats and said he would submit one more party’s support letter later, the Governor did not agree.
Though the Governor could not stop Vijay from becoming Chief Minister, he appeared determined to keep him under pressure till the last moment.
Finally, Vijay collected support letters from four small parties with two MLAs each and took oath as Chief Minister.
However, these four parties made interesting statements. They claimed that they were still part of the DMK alliance and were only giving outside support to Vijay’s government. They also said they were supporting TVK only because they did not want Tamil Nadu to face another election.
Their behaviour has now raised doubts.
During the oath-taking ceremony, they objected to the Tamil state song being played after Vande Mataram and Jana Gana Mana. They are now calling it an insult to the Tamil language. On the very first day, they started criticising the Vijay government on this issue.
On one hand, they say they are still DMK allies. On the other hand, they gave letters to help Vijay form the government. Immediately after that, they began attacking the government’s actions.
This has created a doubt among people: Were those support letters given only for formality?
At the same time, another suspicion is also spreading. Since Vijay badly needed support letters to form the government, did he offer something attractive to these four small parties? Did he secure those letters after promising posts, benefits or other political advantages?
People are now wondering whether these letters were obtained through political bargaining.
Once the government is formed, Vijay may believe he can somehow manage the floor test. But to form the government, those support letters were very important. That is why the political drama behind those letters has become the real talking point.
The Governor has given only two days for Vijay to prove his majority. By the time the floor test takes place, people may get more clarity on what exactly happened behind the scenes to secure those four support letters.
