July 17, 2026

Unholy Alliances Being Pursued In Tamil Nadu

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2026-05-08 07:22:16

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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

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The proverb says that politics throws up strange bedfellows. Nothing could be stranger than sworn enemies DMK and AIADMK coming together, just to keep the disruptor TVK, led by Tamil actor C Joseph Vijay, from poaching on what they consider to be their turf, in complete defiance of the people's verdict.

The wheels were set in motion by the state Governor R V Arlekar who twice denied Vijay the right to form the government as the head of the single largest party in a hung assembly, going against the legal precedent set in S R Bommai, which established that the Governor cannot deny the single largest party the right to prove its majority on the floor.

Then, the Congress dumped its alliance with the DMK and gave signed support to TVK. But that was not enough as Vijay was still short of numbers with the smaller parties playing for time to see which way the dice fell. Meanwhile, DMK supremo M K Stalin said that his party would not destabilise Vijay's government for six months.

Suddenly, sources suggested that the two Dravidian parties were thinking of forming a joint government, something that was impossible even five days ago. Sources also suggested that the BJP is pushing them to form an alliance to keep Vijay out. The speculation that the two parties were in talks was proved to be true as the DMK has said that it might think of an alliance only if the AIADMK dumps the BJP. Hence, the move has boomeranged on the BJP. Given AIADMK's track record with the BJP, that might be quite possible. So where does that leave the latter?

The political games, of denying Vijay and forming unholy alliances, being played in Tamil Nadu clearly show that entrenched players will go to any length to prevent an 'outsider' from disrupting their cosy arrangement. Both the DMK and the AIADMK know that once Vijay breaks their hegemony, it will become difficult for them to claw back.

But will the two parties be able to run a joint government by defying the people's verdict? Stalin had earlier said, in reference to the delimitation exercise, that Tamil Nadu will burn if the Centre goes ahead with it. Does he not understand that Tamil Nadu will also burn if Vijay's supporters take to the streets if he hijacks the mandate by allying with the AIADMK?