What is Tamil Nadu Governor Rajendra Arlekar waiting for? That’s the question in the minds of millions of people in India. The election was conducted, and the results announced on May 4. It has been three days since, but Vijay, whose Tamilaga Vetri Kazagham (TVK), emerged as the single-biggest party in Tamil Nadu, has been waiting for the go ahead from the Governor to form the government. The Governor isn’t just standing in Vijay’s way, he is disregarding convention, and sowing confusion.
In the Tamil Nadu Assembly polls, the TVK, led by actor-politician Vijay, emerged as the single largest party with 108 seats. That’s almost double of what the DMK, which is now the second-biggest party, could manage. However, the TVK fell 10 seats short of the magic number of 118.
The people of Tamil Nadu, wary of the two oscillating Dravida parties—the DMK, and the AIADMK—sided with Vijay’s two-year-old party.
Now, days after the announcement of the verdict of the people of Tamil Nadu, there’s a wait-and-watch game playing out in Chennai. Despite Arlekar’s assurance that he wouldn’t invite any other party, as sources told India Today TV, there’s no clarity whether Vijay’s TVK would form the next government.
That’s because the process has been kept on pause. If Vijay is getting a chance to form the government, why not say so? Let him prove whether he can muster a majority on the floor of the Assembly. That’s what people voted for, and that’s what constututional morality would suggest.
The Raj Bhavan in Chennai has not clarified why it is doing what it is doing.
Several political parties and leaders have voiced their concern over the delay, backing Vijay’s bid for the CM’s post.
The Governor of Tamil Nadu should have invited Vijay as the leader of the single-largest party to form a government. On the contrary, Vijay sought Arlekar’s appointment and met him twice since results were declared on May 4, only to be told that he didn’t have the required majority.
Now, amid the delay, confusion, and debate over what the Governor should or should not do, shouldn’t the constitutional head of the state at least allow Vijay to take oath and then prove his majority on the floor of the Tamil Nadu Assembly? There are Supreme Court judgments and precedents that support the view that Vijay should first be invited to take oath and then be asked to prove his majority on the floor of the Assembly.
“The Governor should facilitate the formation of a government, because the Governor cannot have a situation where no government is possible. That would be a very unfortunate situation,” PDT Achary, former Secretary General of the Lok Sabha, told India Today TV.
“Therefore, it is the duty of the Governor to facilitate the formation of a government. Of course, there is a case for inviting the single largest party or the single largest alliance, even if they do not have the requisite numbers at the moment, or they are close to the majority mark. They can be invited,” he added.
These developments come amid reports that Vijay’s TVK is in talks with several parties, including the Congress, to reach the 118 seats needed for a simple majority. It was able to get 108 seats.
However, even with the Congress’s five seats, the TVK still falls short of the 118-seat majority mark. So, the support of other parties, like some from the Left and the Thol Thirumavalavan’s Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), are crucial for the TVK.
On Wednesday, some reports also revealed a buzz of alliance talks between the DMK and its arch-rival AIADMK. The DMK, with 59 seats, and the AIADMK, with 47 seats, are the second and the third-largest parties in the Tamil Nadu Assembly poll. The BJP, which runs the Central government, is a part of the AIADMK-led alliance.
Meanwhile, Congress leader and the party’s state in-charge, Girish Chodankar, slammed the Governor, accusing him of acting under pressure from the BJP and the RSS instead of respecting the people’s mandate. He alleged that the Governor was “bowing before the BJP rather than before the Constitution and the people of Tamil Nadu”.
“Due to his RSS background and the pressure from Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, I feel that the Governor is bowing before the BJP rather than before the Constitution and the people of Tamil Nadu. This is not right,” he said.
LET VIJAY TAKE TAMIL NADU CM’s OATH, LEADERS DEMAND NO DELAY
This is the question which people and politicians in Tamil Nadu and beyond are asking now. Several leaders of the CPI(M) and the VCK, who are expected to support Vijay’s TVK, and were part of the DMK’s pre-poll alliance, have voiced this opinion.
Actor Prakash Raj said that Vijay should be invited to form the government and prove his majority on the floor of the Assembly because he had secured the public mandate in Tamil Nadu. Raj told India Today TV that the immediate priority should be to respect the people’s mandate and allow the democratic process to proceed.
“Governor’s House is not the truth. Besides, it is the floor of the House. The Governor has no business deciding the matter at home,” Prakash Raj said.
VCK MP Thirumavalavan urged the Governor of Tamil Nadu to invite Vijay to form the government. The party won two seats as part of the DMK alliance.
Thirumavalavan said the Governor should immediately invite Vijay to form the government, arguing that the people’s mandate must be respected, and the majority could later be proved on the Assembly floor. He revealed that Vijay had sought support from the VCK and the Left parties for a “secular government”.
“Vijay must be allowed to take the oath. But the Governor is yet to make a decision, leaving room for confusion. This is unacceptable,” Thirumavalavan said, adding, discussions were underway.
HAVE CMs EVER TAKEN OATH WITHOUT THE MAJORITY NUMBERS?
News reports suggest that governors of several states have administered the oath of office to the leader of the single-largest party, and let them prove the majority at a later date.
However, in Vijay’s case, the convention is being discarded, it seems. In 2019 in Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, the leader of the single-largest party, the BJP, was administered an oath for the chief minister’s office, even as the party didn’t command a majority in the state Assembly.
The discretionary conduct of the Tamil Nadu Governor also looks to be qualifying as a violation of the Supreme Court’s landmark 1994 SR Bommai judgment.
A source told India Today TV that in Vijay’s case, Governor Arlekar had insisted on written support to ensure that the government remains stable and does not collapse after formation.
In the Bommai ruling of March 1994, the Supreme Court, which set norms for the use of Article 356, insisted that legislative majorities must ordinarily be tested on the Assembly floor, not guessed at in Raj Bhavans or engineered in Delhi drawing rooms. It was a jurisprudential slap on the old habit of treating states as inconvenient subsidiaries, wrote Chennai-based journalist, TR Jawahar, in Part 38 of his series, Time, Tide & Tamil.
While the Governor can exercise his discretion, the Supreme Court ruling means that it is the floor of the Assembly where the CM has to prove his majority. Convention and judicial interpretation of the Constitution shows that the Governor is standing in the way of Vijay despite the TVK leader receiving the people’s mandate. It will be appropriate that he allows Vijay to take oath and prove his majority on the floor of Tamil Nadu Assembly.
– Ends
