A day after actor turned politician Vijay’s TVK emerged as the single largest party in Tamil Nadu, the Congress on Tuesday held meeting here to discuss if it needs to extend support to it in the southern state and left the decision with the state unit.Â
A high level meeting took place at the residence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, where Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, party general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh and state incharge Girish Chodankar were also present.Â
The meeting lasted for over an hour.Â
After the meeting, Venugopal said that the meeting took place to discuss the Tamil Nadu elections.Â
He said that TVK president Vijay has requested Congress for support to form a Government in Tamil Nadu.Â
“Congress is clear that the mandate in Tamil Nadu is for a secular government, committed to protecting the constitution in letter and spirit. The Congress is determined not to have the BJP and proxies run the government of Tamil Nadu in any manner,” he saidÂ
“Accordingly, the Congress leadership has directed the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee to take a final decision on Vijay’s request, keeping in view the sentiments of the state reflected in the electoral verdict,” Venugopal added.
Earlier in the day, Chodankar held meeting with the newly elected MLAs of party in Chennai and then came to Delhi.Â
The development comes a day after Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi dialled Vijay to congratulate him on his party’s victory in Tamil Nadu.Â
TVK won 108 seats in the 234 member assembly. It requires 118 in the house to form government.Â
Congress contested on 28 assembly seats in alliance with the DMK led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA). The DMK won 59 seats, while the other SPA partner PMK won four seats. The Left parties also won on four seats in the alliance.Â
Meanwhile, the AIADMK won on 47 seats and the BJP registering victory on one seat in the state.
