When C Joseph Vijay addressed his party's second state conference in Madurai last August, he made clear his disdain for alliances, in their existing form at the time at least. “I don't have the need to join any slave alliance.” He declared to a packed crowd.
He chose to go it alone in the assembly polls held in April 2026, and on May 10 became chief minister, making some interesting history — his is the state's first post-poll coalition government, stitched together after a tense week of negotiations with parties he had not campaigned with, some of whom had actively campaigned against him.
The TVK — founded by a superstar actor who once had an ester egg in his movie about becoming CM in 2026 — won 108 seats, becoming the single largest party in the 234-member assembly.
Ten seats short of majority, Vijay had to do what no winning party leader in Tamil Nadu has had to do since the Dravidian era began in 1967; he had to go looking for support after the votes were counted.
The coalition that assembled around Vijay was thus driven as much by this shared anxiety as by any shared conviction.
The final count: TVK's effective 107 seats — Vijay won two constituencies and must vacate one — plus Congress (5), CPI (2), CPI(M) (2), VCK (2) and IUML (2), totalling 120.
