Congress, BJP spar over Governor delay as TVK falls short of majority in TN

With the TVK party falling short of a majority, a war of words erupted between Congress and BJP leaders over the governor’s alleged delay in calling Vijay to form the Government in Tamil Nadu.

TVK has won 108 seats in the April 23 polls. Of which, Vijay will have to resign from one of the two seats he has won. Congress, which faced the election as part of the DMK-led alliance, switched sides post polls and extended the support of its five MLAs to TVK, taking the number of MLAs supporting Vijay to 112, which still falls short of 118, which marks a majority in the 234-member Tamil Nadu assembly.

Neither of the Dravidian majors, DMK and AIADMK, is close to the majority, and it ended up as a hung Assembly. Parties with smaller numbers in both the camps, VCK, PMK, CPI, CPI(M), IUML, DMDK and AMMK, have game-changer potential. Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar was asking TVK to submit letters of support from allied MLAs and other partners, effectively establishing a working majority before an invitation to form the Government was issued.

This has triggered a broader political debate, especially between Congress and the BJP, over whether the governor should insist on establishing a majority before inviting TVK to form a Government.

Congress leaders have portrayed the delay in calling Vijay to form the Government as a deliberate attempt from the BJP in the Centre, calling it an “undemocratic” tactic against the verdict of the people.

BJP leaders, on the other hand, have justified the governor’s act and stressed “constitutional prudence”.

Congress MP Manickam Tagore alleged, “A former BJP leader as governor is now being used by the BJP to deny power to the single largest party. Vijay must be invited immediately; the numbers can be tested in the Assembly, not in the Raj Bhavan”.

BJP spokesperson Narayanan Thirupathy said, “The governor must discharge his duties in accordance with the law. As per convention, the governor may invite the party leading a pre-poll alliance, which has emerged victorious, to form the Government. Alternatively, if the single largest party expresses its willingness to form the Government, the Governor bears the responsibility under Article 164 of the Constitution to verify whether the support extended by other parties or by the elected members is sufficient to be deemed satisfactory”.

Asserting that the governor should immediately invite TVK leader Vijay to form the Government as his party emerged as the single largest party, Congress MP Jothimani said that the majority should be tested on the floor of the Legislative Assembly, not at the “Raj Bhavan” (Lok Bhavan), and that the governor should not stand in the way of the people’s verdict.