CPI general secretary M. A. Baby has defended the party’s decision to support actor-politician C. Joseph Vijay in Tamil Nadu’s government formation battle, arguing that the Left could not endorse any arrangement that placed the AIADMK within reach of power while it remained aligned with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.Baby’s intervention sharpened the political contest in Chennai after the CPI, CPI and other smaller parties moved to back Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, giving the fledgling party a path to cross the majority mark in the Assembly. The move followed days of uncertainty after the election produced a fractured mandate, with TVK emerging as the principal claimant but short of the numbers needed to form a stable government on its own.
The CPI leader said the DMK had explored the option of extending outside support to an AIADMK-led government and had expected the Left to consider a similar line. Baby rejected that route, saying the Left’s political position could not be reconciled with helping an NDA-linked formation take office. His remarks framed the CPI’s backing for Vijay not as an embrace of TVK’s full political programme, but as a tactical decision shaped by the arithmetic of the Assembly and the need to block the AIADMK-BJP axis.
DMK circles have pushed back against the implication that the party had abandoned its anti-BJP positioning, contending that government formation in a hung House required all parties to weigh constitutional options. The party, led by M. K. Stalin, faces one of its most delicate moments since it returned to power in 2021, with its post-poll strategy coming under pressure from former allies and rivals alike.
Vijay’s rise has transformed Tamil Nadu’s political landscape. TVK, launched in 2024, fought the Assembly election as a new force built around the actor’s mass appeal, welfare promises and a campaign pitch aimed at younger voters, first-time electors and those disenchanted with the Dravidian duopoly. Its performance has disrupted the long-standing contest between the DMK and AIADMK, forcing established parties to respond to a political outsider who has now become central to government formation.
The immediate question before Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar was whether Vijay had demonstrated sufficient support to be invited to form the government. Letters of support from the CPI, CPI, VCK and IUML strengthened TVK’s claim, though the process was marked by competing allegations over delay, pressure and procedural caution. The governor’s office came under scrutiny as parties watched whether constitutional convention would be followed swiftly once the numbers were placed before it.
For the Left, the decision carries both opportunity and risk. Supporting Vijay allows it to retain an anti-BJP posture and avoid being drawn into any AIADMK-led arrangement. At the same time, it exposes the CPI and CPI to criticism that they are lending legitimacy to a personality-driven party with limited governing experience and a still-developing ideological framework. Baby’s defence sought to address that tension by stressing that outside support does not amount to joining the government or abandoning the Left’s independent political line.
The VCK’s position added another layer to the negotiations. Its support was seen as vital not only for numbers but also for the social justice legitimacy of any TVK-led arrangement. Friction surfaced over the manner of TVK’s outreach, with criticism that high-stakes coalition building required direct political engagement rather than impersonal communication. Even so, the broader anti-AIADMK calculation appears to have outweighed reservations about Vijay’s organisational maturity.
AIADMK leaders, meanwhile, have sought to project the post-poll manoeuvring as proof that voters delivered a verdict against the DMK but not necessarily a mandate for TVK. The party’s association with the BJP-led alliance, however, complicated its acceptability to parties that built their campaigns around secular and federal themes. That has narrowed the space for a workable AIADMK-led alternative despite its continued relevance in the Assembly.