The Missing Letter
The Tamil Nadu Governor, Rajendra Arlekar’s decision not to allow TVK leader Vijay a chance to form the government in the state, even though his is the single largest party has come in for much criticism. The Governor’s stand is that the Chief Ministerial aspirant should come with a letter proving full majority and not one MLA short. There are enough precedents when Governors have allowed Chief Ministers to be sworn in and only after that prove the majority on the floor of the House, but the TN Governor remains adamant. That aside, there is an interesting anecdote about when Vijay went to call on the Governor (the first of many visits!) he had the support of 112 MLAs (107 from TVK, and 5 from the Congress). Though the TVK has won 108 seats, Vijay himself contested from two constituencies and thereby his party can only claim the support of 107 MLAs. However, when the Governor asked for proof of the Congress support, Vijay realised that he had left the letter in his car. The Governor apparently then proceeded to give him a lecture on taking politics seriously. But, as things stand, even that letter did not convince the Governor to give Vijay the go-ahead. As things stand, while the Bengal Chief Minister was sworn in on the 9th, Tamil Nadu will have to wait its turn.
Resort Politics
So confident was the TVK of winning these polls that prior to counting day, Vijay had booked as many as 100 rooms in a resort for his MLAs. Considering that apart from one pollster no one gave his party much of a chance, let alone emerging as the single largest party in the state, this showed a remarkable understanding of the state’s politics.
What next for Opposition Politics?
That is the question that is now doing the rounds, especially after Akhilesh Yadav’s post that went viral on X. Akhilesh put out two snapshots, one of him meeting Mamata Banerjee and the other one of him with DMK leader Stalin and wrote, “We are not ones who abandon each other in times of difficulty” (translated version). Clearly, both Stalin and Mamata are not happy with the way the Congress has behaved, with the DMK accusing Congress of “backstabbing” after the national party decided to ally with the TVK. Apparently, the DMK has also requested the Lok Sabha Speaker to ensure its seats are not alongside the Congress anymore. If Mamata Banerjee and Akhilesh Yadav follow suit then this will be a huge dent in Opposition politics at the national level. Earlier too, while I.N.D.I.A bloc allies contest against each other at the Assembly level, they unite at the national level to take on the BJP. The Congress, in its defence, points this out citing several instances where the SP and TMC had supported AAP in Delhi against the Congress, and even in the past when both the TMC and DMK were in coalition with the BJP. Will the Opposition sort out its differences before the monsoon session of Parliament?
