Actor-turned-politician Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar was sworn in as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on Sunday morning at Chennai’s Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, becoming the first in nearly six decades to have no connection to either of the Dravidian parties that have governed the southern Indian state without interruption since 1967.
Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar administered the oath of office and secrecy to Vijay at 10 a.m. local time. Nine ministers were simultaneously inducted into the cabinet, among them TVK General Secretary N. Anand, TVK leaders Aadhav Arjuna and K.A. Sengottaiyan, and Selvi S. Keerthana – the sole woman in the inaugural council. Vijay reserved the portfolios of public administration, police and home for himself.
The ceremony brought to a close a week of acute political uncertainty that at several points threatened to keep Vijay out of power entirely. His Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam had won 108 seats in the April 23 election – an extraordinary debut, but 10 short of the majority mark of 118. When Vijay called on the Governor on Wednesday to stake his claim, he could demonstrate the backing of only 113 legislators (MLAs) – his own 108 seats plus the five won by Congress, which had broken sharply from its previous DMK alliance to support TVK, a move that drew fierce criticism from senior DMK leaders.
What followed was a frantic few days of horse-trading. Television channels carried near-continuous speculation that the DMK and AIADMK – rivals for six decades – were holding secret talks, colluding to form a combined government that would shut out the newcomer and keep power within the Dravidian fold. The reports gained a degree of credibility when AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami, having assembled his 47 newly elected MLAs in Chennai for a meeting that officially ruled out supporting Vijay, nonetheless asked them to remain in the city for several more days in case “something new and unprecedented” required their approval. A section of AIADMK’s own legislators was reported to favor backing Vijay, against Palaniswami’s wishes. The Left parties and the Indian Union Muslim League initially declined to commit their support. The VCK, which had fought the election as a DMK ally, said its two MLAs’ fate would be decided by party president Thol. Thirumavalavan alone, and kept the political world waiting.
The logjam finally broke over Thursday and Friday, as Thirumavalavan confirmed the VCK’s unconditional backing, with the IUML following. The Left parties – CPI and CPI(M) with two seats each – subsequently fell into line, carrying TVK’s combined floor strength to 120 and settling the question of government formation. The final tally rests on TVK’s own 107 effective seats – Vijay having won two constituencies and being required by law to vacate one – alongside five from Congress and two each from CPI, CPI(M), VCK and IUML. TVK has committed to facing a vote of confidence on or before May 13.
Among the dignitaries in attendance at the swearing in ceremony was Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition in the central parliament, the Lok Sabha, whose presence carried weight well beyond ceremony. For Gandhi’s Congress party, the Tamil Nadu coalition marks a return to a share of power in the state after roughly six decades on the periphery – and arrives at a moment of striking national momentum for the party. In the same round of elections, the Congress-led United Democratic Front secured 102 of 140 seats in neighboring Kerala. the UDF’s haul represents its best performance in the state in nearly five decades, bringing down a government the Left Democratic Front had held without interruption since 2016. Congress already governs Karnataka, where Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has been in office since May 2023, and Telangana under Chief Minister Revanth Reddy since December 2023. The Tamil Nadu coalition now adds a fourth southern state to that footprint – a meaningful counterweight to the BJP-led government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the centre, and one that Congress will be eager to consolidate ahead of the next general election.
The same ballot that produced Vijay’s triumph delivered sharply contrasting verdicts elsewhere. In West Bengal, the BJP ended Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress’s long dominance with a landslide of 207 seats in the 293-member assembly, reducing TMC to 80 — a result Banerjee and opposition figures including Rahul Gandhi disputed. In Assam, the BJP retained power comfortably with 82 of 126 seats, defeating the Congress-led challenge, which secured 19. In Puducherry, the NDA similarly held its ground: the All India N.R. Congress took 12 seats and BJP four, with N. Rangasamy returning to the Chief Minister’s office for a fifth term. TVK contested the union territory’s 30-seat assembly and secured two seats – a modest but symbolically significant foothold for a party that did not exist two years ago. The DMK, routed in Tamil Nadu, managed five seats in Puducherry.
Actor Trisha Krishnan was among the film industry figures in the stadium as Tamil cinema watched one of its biggest stars formalise his transition from screen to the state’s highest elected office.
The formation of the government brings to a close a political journey Vijay began in February 2024, when he wound up a film career spanning 69 lead roles and launched TVK, immediately announcing an ambition to contest all 234 seats without alliance partners. The party drew on Vijay’s 85,000-strong fan club network to build a grassroots apparatus that ultimately secured approximately 35% of the popular vote – a higher share than M.G. Ramachandran managed in his own landmark 1977 debut as an actor stepping into government.
The occasion also could end the extended limbo surrounding “Jana Nayagan” — the H. Vinoth-directed KVN Productions title, starring Vijay, that became the focus of a prolonged certification dispute with the Central Board of Film Certification and a damaging piracy incident in April, and which has still not received a theatrical release date. Whatever its eventual box office fate, the film’s lead is now Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
