- Congress in Tamil Nadu has approached actor Vijay's party TVK for an alliance, say sources
- A Congress-TVK alliance would reach the combined total of seats needed to form a government, they said
- Congress leader KC Venugopal acknowledged the surprise at TVK's electoral performance
The Congress in Tamil Nadu has reached out to actor Vijay's TVK for an alliance, people with direct knowledge of the matter said, following the new party's superb performance and meteoric rise in the state which until now had the legacy DMK and AIADMK in a duopoly.
The latest data shows the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) at 105 seats, followed by the DMK at 71 and the AIADMK a distant third at 57. The Tamil Nadu assembly has 234 seats.
The Congress and the TVK, if they decide to join forces, would touch the target of 118.
Congress leader KC Venugopal admitted that the Tamil Nadu results came as a "surprise".
"We need to take a call on Tamil Nadu without delay and we will. We should appreciate Vijay," he said.
To a question about whether the two parties should have teamed up before the elections began, Venugopal said, "We will analyse it."
The 'GOATED' performance of Vijay's new party in its first ever electoral contest will be talked about in political discussions in the years long after this election is done and dusted. The actor even starred in a 2024 Tamil film 'The Greatest of All Time', also known as GOAT.
Another record set by the TVK is that no other party in Tamil Nadu has managed to come to power in just two years since its formation. AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran became chief minister in 1977. But he started his party in 1972 and long before becoming the chief minister he earned experience in the DMK for two decades.
Since 1967, either the DMK or the AIADMK has been alternating in a duopoly of power in the southern state often called the "Dravidian Heartland".
