Tamil Nadu has got its third actor-chief minister in Chandrasekaran Joseph Vijay. And the wafer-thin margin he has managed to cobble together in the assembly after a spectacular showing at the hustings promises to keep his government on the edge — cine style. Keenly aware of this, Mr Vijay visited his predecessor, M.K. Stalin, on his second day in office. He appeared to be seeking a working relationship with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which swallowed its pride and allowed pre-poll allies to extend support to the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, thereby making the Sunday swearing-in possible given that the governor, R.V. Arlekar, was insistent on having proof of support of at least 118 MLAs in hand before inviting the actor-turned-politician to assume office. This despite the Supreme Court maintaining, time and again, that the House, and not Lok Bhavan, “is the place where democracy is in action”, prioritising the floor test over letters of support as the most objective method of determining whether a government has the majority. The Sarkaria Commission also made it clear that where a pre-poll alliance does not have a clear majority, the next option would be to invite the single-largest party that can demonstrate support. Such a party would then have to clear a floor test. In this instance, the option of Mr Vijay running a minority government — like the one led by P.V. Narasimha Rao at the Centre — was not explored. Given its evolving dynamics with the DMK and the general consensus that the mandate was for the TVK, this possibility should have been explored.
The Congress’s haste in ditching the DMK to hitch its wagon to the TVK at the risk of weakening the INDIA bloc is also raising eyebrows. The state unit of the Congress undoubtedly had a bone to pick with the DMK’s Big Brother attitude. Could the party’s central leadership not have handled the break-up better, given how it would change the dynamics between two of INDIA’s principal constituents? Admittedly, INDIA is essentially a group of state-level coalitions working together to fight the Bharatiya Janata Party. There is still room for the DMK and the Congress to remain in the fold and, possibly, even rope in the TVK. After all, the Trinamool Congress and the Left parties are part of the INDIA bloc, as has been the Aam Aadmi Party despite the Congress. INDIA would hope that the rupture will heal.