Blockbuster Vijay: TVK grabs DMK, AIADMK votes to emerge as single-largest party

The Vijay-led Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) on Monday breached the Dravidian citadel in Tamil Nadu by emerging as the single-largest party in the 234-member Assembly.

The debutant party won 108 seats, while the incumbent DMK-led alliance secured 74. The AIADMK-led bloc won 52 seats. TVK chief Vijay won both his seats – Perumbur and Trichy East – while Chief Minister MK Stalin lost to a TVK candidate in Kolathur.

The TVK comprehensively outperformed both Dravidian majors, with the DMK appearing to have taken a bigger hit than the AIADMK.

Monday's results vindicated Axis My India’s Pradeep Gupta, who had diverged from other pollsters to project 98–120 seats for the TVK.

The TVK made gains across every region and segment of Tamil Nadu, largely at the expense of the two Dravidian parties. Nowhere was this more evident than in Chennai, where it outperformed both. The state’s urban hub has 37 constituencies, long considered DMK strongholds, but the debutant won 31 of them.

The broader picture was reflected in vote share trends, which indicated that the TVK was eating into the vote banks of both alliances. The party secured around 34 per cent of the vote, while the DMK alliance secured 32 per cent. The AIADMK bloc stood at about 28 per cent. Both parties lost over 11 per cent of their vote share to the newcomer.

Meanwhile, the focus has shifted to government formation, which the party is confident of forming without the help of other parties.

“We expected this. I don’t think we need support from any other party. We have been saying there is a silent Vijay wave. This shows Tamil Nadu was waiting for change. People were unhappy and fed up with both the DMK and the AIADMK,” said TVK’s Felix Gerald.

The TVK is in pole position to form the first non-Dravidian government in Tamil Nadu since 1967. If and when that happens, it would mark a tectonic shift in the State’s politics, long dominated by the DMK and the AIADMK.