TN CM Vijay rejects horse-trading charge, slams DMK and AIADMK

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay on Monday rejected the horse-trading charge levelled against him by the Opposition parties, and accused the main rivals DMK and AIADMK of surreptitiously “attempting to form the Government to loot”.

Addressing his maiden rally after assuming charge as chief minister on May 10, Vijay slammed the DMK for persistently criticising him and his TVK and alleged that the DMK’s “family politics” was the reason for the Dravidian major’s defeat in the April 23 Assembly election.

“The people have made me the ‘first sewak’, not chief minister,” he said and added that the more the DMK criticised him, the more advantageous it would turn out for the TVK.

After the election results were declared on May 4, the two Dravidian parties engaged in a bargain, and they secretly tried to form the Government so as to loot.

“It was because if the TVK formed the Government, their ‘business’ — loot and corruption — would be lost,” he alleged and slammed the DMK as an “evil force” and the AIADMK as a “spent force.”

Launching a sharp attack on the DMK for criticising his newly formed TVK Government, Vijay said those who initially promised to remain silent for six months to let his new Government settle down, could not even wait for six days before aggressively criticising his Government.

 “As I said earlier, the contest is only between the TVK and DMK, and others don’t matter,” the TVK president said, addressing the meeting at St Joseph’s College here to thank the voters for ensuring a victory for his party.

Though people refer to him as MLA of Perambur, as far as he was concerned, the people of the Tiruchirappalli constituency were very close to his heart. He said even the late chief minister MG Ramachandran did not secure so much vote share as the TVK did in the first election.

“You have extended such tremendous support to the TVK. The votes that were not cast in 1977 were cast in 2026. I am not comparing myself with MGR,” he said.

He continued saying, “MGR is MGR, and I am your Vijay who has come to work on the path shown by MGR, Anna and Periyar, that’s all,” the chief minister said.

“The only thing is, if you had supported a little bit more, it would have turned out a bit better. But it’s okay, in all the elections to come in the future, your full support will be there,” Vijay said.

Vijay justified wearing a suit and asked why he should not wear the suit. “I am wearing only two colours - black and white - symbolising the human heart,” the chief minister said, indicating that he believed in being straightforward in administration or black and white concerning decision making and policy formulation, leaving no room for grey areas.

Without naming the AIADMK, Vijay slammed it as a ‘spent force’. He claimed his TVK has broken barriers of ‘caste, religion, cash for votes’ in the polls. The TVK regime will be for all people. There will be no compromise on state rights and secularism, he said.