Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], May 8 : CPM Tamil Nadu State Secretary TT Shanmugam on Thursday asserted that TVK leader Vijay should be invited to form the government in the hung Tamil Nadu Assembly, stating that the Constitution mandates the party with the largest number of seats be given the first opportunity.
"According to the Constitution, it is TVK that should be allowed to form the government. We have never seen a situation like this in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, and now we have a hung Assembly. It is the Governor who should invite Vijay to form the government because he is leading," Shanmugam said.
He criticised the Governor's stance, saying, "The Governor is now saying that there is a High Court order, which is not right."
Shanmugam added that the CPM would soon take a formal decision on extending support to Vijay.
"We have a general body meeting of the party tomorrow, and following that, we will decide within two days on our stance on whether we are going to support Vijay or not," he stated.
The CPM leader revealed that the party had met DMK president and Chief Minister MK Stalin to discuss the evolving political situation.
"We met Stalin, considering the relationship we share, and spoke to him about the current election scenario. We also told him that the Governor should call only TVK and let Vijay take the oath as Chief Minister," Shanmugam said.
The remarks come amid intense political deliberations following the hung verdict in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.
TVK won 108 seats in the Assembly elections, while Congress won five, taking the tally of the newly brewing alliance to 112. The TVK-led potential coalition still falls five short of the majority mark of 118 in the 234-member Assembly.
According to sources, the Governor sought clarity on the "magic number" required for government formation and asked Vijay to furnish details of legislators backing TVK's claim to form the government in Tamil Nadu.
As Congress is now firm in TVK's corner, Arlekar's not callling Vijay to form the government has drawn fiery remarks and allegations from its leaders. Many have alleged that Arlekar is acting on the BJP's whims to stall the due procedure and undermine the Constitution.
TVK Joint General Secretary CTR Nirmal Kumar, accompanied by party leaders, met with the Communist Party of India leaders at the CPI office in Chennai on Thursday, to garner the support for making goverment in Tamil Nadu.
Speaking with the media, Nirmal Kumar said that the VCK and CPI will both hold internal meetings over extending support to TVK and will provide the answer afterwards.
Both CPI and VCK won two seats each in the elections.
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