Joseph Vijay’s fate remained uncertain on Friday after initial indications that he might be able to form the Tamil Nadu government, with two smaller DMK allies denying late at night that they had given him letters of support.

Earlier in the evening, the TVK leader seemed to have ended the four-day deadlock over government formation by meeting the governor before TV cameras and handing him letters of support.

He was widely understood to have received formal support from the CPI, CPM, Dalit party VCK and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), each of which has two MLAs, thereby lifting his numbers to 120 in a House of 234.

There was no official communication from the Governor’s House but sources suggested Vijay would be sworn in as chief minister on Saturday.

Several hours later, however, the IUML said it had not given a formal letter of support to the TVK although it had verbally agreed to back Vijay.

VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan remained silent on his party’s support to the TVK, leaving Vijay with just 116 confirmed votes, still two short of the majority mark of 118. Thirumavalavan has said he would announce his decision on Saturday.

Moves began late at night to get governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar to call AIADMK leader Edappadi Palanisamy — a BJP ally — to form the government despite the coalition having won just 53 seats.

T.T.V. Dinakaran, an AIADMK leader, met the governor and raised a corruption charge against the TVK.

Arlekar’s refusal till now to allow Vijay to form the government has drawn criticism from several legal experts, who said the constitutional and legal mandate was that the governor invite the single largest party in a hung House.

Debutant party TVK had sprinted to a spectacular win in the Assembly elections, bagging 108 seats — effectively 107 since Vijay won from two seats. The DMK alliance won 73 seats, 20 more than the AIADMK alliance.

Vijay was able to hand the governor letters of support from the 5 Congress MLAs on Wednesday but Arlekar had refused to budge, insisting Vijay prove he has majority support.

At Friday evening’s meeting, Vijay greeted Arlekar with a bouquet and shawl and the governor was seen patting him on the back.

The IUML had earlier expressed reservations about supporting the TVK, citing its membership of the rival DMK alliance. But on Friday evening, party president Khader Mohideen said the IUML would back Vijay in line with DMK leader M.K. Stalin’s appeal to the governor to ensure the formation of a government in keeping with democratic principles.

Hours later, though, the IUML introduced a twist inthe tale.

The two Left parties said they were offering “support from the outside” andwould not be part of the new government.

Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had earlier spoken to the two Left parties’ national leaders to persuade them to back the TVK.

The Left parties, IUML and the VCK had been grappling with a dilemma — how would a decision to support the TVK impact their alliance withthe DMK?

The Congress too had fought the election as part of the DMK alliance.

CPM state committee secretary P. Shanmugam and CPI state council secretary Veerapandian announced at a joint news conference inthe evening that both parties had decided to supportthe TVK.

They said the objective was to “thwart any backdoor BJP rule in the event of President’s rule in Tamil Nadu, ensure a secular government mindful of democratic principles is in place, and thereby fulfil the people’s mandate”.

Shanmugam underlined that if government formation got delayed beyond May 10, when the term of the outgoing Assembly ends, the governor could impose central rule.

Earlier, the Left parties had handed over their letters of “unconditional support” to TVK joint general secretary Nirmal Kumar