Vijay takes oath as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister

Vijay takes oath as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on Sunday morning at Chennai’s Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, ending fifty-nine years of alternating DMK and AIADMK rule and putting Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam in power as the state’s first non-Dravidian governing party. Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar is administering the oath to Vijay and a nine-member cabinet, with proceedings beginning shortly after 10 a.m.

The visuals so far have been historic-grade. Vijay arrived at the stadium and folded his hands to a packed venue, with Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi seated on the stage among the dignitaries who travelled to Chennai for the morning. Cinema attendance includes Trisha Krishnan, who arrived in a pastel blue silk saree. The new chief minister’s parents, filmmaker SA Chandrasekhar and Shoba Chandrasekhar, are at the venue, with Mother’s Day adding a private layer to a public morning that Shoba addressed to reporters as the family left the house.

The math behind the swearing-in is fragile. TVK won 108 seats in the 234-member assembly, but Vijay won two and must vacate one, leaving the party at 107. Five Congress MLAs and two each from the CPI, CPI(M), VCK, and IUML carry the alliance to 120, the threshold that finally moved Governor Arlekar after a four-day standoff. The Governor’s invitation letter requires Vijay to win a confidence vote on the floor of the assembly on or before May 13, and a Madras High Court bench is hearing a one-vote DMK challenge in Tirupathur at 10.30 a.m. on Sunday that could nudge those numbers if it lands. Outgoing chief minister M.K. Stalin and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami have publicly congratulated the new government.