Tamil Nadu politics news | Congress MP Karti Chidambaram on Wednesday said that the Congress will back Thalapathy Vijay-led Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) in Tamil Nadu to "respect the people's mandate" and help in the formation of a secular government in the state.

Even though the TVK won 108 seats in the assembly polls, it is still 10 seats short of the halfway mark of 118. 

In an interaction with India Today, Karti Chidambaram said, "The Congress party is respecting the mandate of the people. See, if you take this position that anybody who's contested an election in a formation will only stick to their position, then we'll have no government. That is not what the people of Tamil Nadu wanted."

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Calling the Tamil Nadu election result a "mandate for change", he added that the Congress would help TVK bring other parties on board as efforts continue to secure support from other regional parties. 

Responding to DMK's "backstabbing" comment, Karti said that it was "unfortunate" and suggested that it didn't understand post-poll alliances. 

“If you look at European examples, parties that are very contradictory to each other also come together to make sure people are given a stable government,” he said.

Going ahead, he made some big comments on the future of the Congress-DMK alliance. Chidambaram said that the party's decision to support TVK would not impact its broader relationship with the DMK at the national level. 

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He further noted that Stalin is "a very, very experienced political leader." Furthermore, he said, "He understands the ground reality. He understands the expectations of other political parties. I'm sure he understands this. This is not something which is unthinkable, which is happening." 

He added that the AIADMK is facing an "existential crisis" after losing multiple elections. 

Meanwhile, the Congress has offered conditional support to TVK in government formation. "Our support shall be conditional upon the TVK keeping out from this alliance any communal forces that do not believe in the Constitution of India," the letter read. 

In the recently conducted Tamil Nadu assembly polls, the TVK emerged as the single-largest party with 108 seats in its kitty. The DMK and the AIADMK won 59 and 47 seats, respectively. The Congress won 5 seats, whereas the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) won 4 seats. 

The CPI, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), CPI(M), and IUML won 2 seats each. The BJP, DMDK, and Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam won one seat each. 

Published on: May 6, 2026 1:03 PM IST