Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) President C. Joseph Vijay Monday met his predecessor and DMK President M.K. Stalin at his Alwarpet residence here, in a politically significant development following the dramatic post-election realignment in the state.
Vijay, who recently led his TVK to a historic electoral debut, called on Stalin after attending the oath-taking ceremony of newly elected MLAs in the Assembly.
The meeting has drawn considerable political attention as the allies of DMK played a crucial role in enabling the TVK government to assume office.
In the recently concluded Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, the TVK emerged as the single largest party by winning 108 seats in the 234-member Assembly.
However, the party fell short of the 118 seats required to form the government on its own. As a result, Vijay initiated discussions with parties that were earlier part of the DMK-led alliance to secure outside support for government formation.
Following negotiations, the Congress agreed to extend support to the TVK and formally distanced itself from the DMK-led alliance. Left parties, the CPI and the CPI-M, along with the VCK and the IUML, also announced unconditional outside support to the Vijay-led formation, enabling the TVK to cross the majority mark in the Assembly.
With the backing of these parties, Vijay was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on May 10 at a grand ceremony held in Chennai. Soon after assuming office, he signed files related to three major welfare initiatives, including free electricity benefits for households, special women’s safety measures, and anti-drug enforcement initiatives across districts.
He also chaired meetings with senior officials regarding law and order and administrative priorities of the new government.
Later, Vijay paid tribute at the memorial of social reformer Periyar, whom he has often described as one of his ideological inspirations. He also met Dravidar Kazhagam {resident K. Veeramani and received his greetings.
Meanwhile, political activity intensified in the Assembly Monday with the commencement of the first session of the newly constituted House. TVK MLA J.C.D. Prabhakar filed his nomination for the post of Speaker ahead of the election.
