Tamil Nadu Government Formation Crisis Revives 1997-Style Coalition Politics

TVK Majority Crisis: The political turmoil over government formation in Tamil Nadu has brought an almost three-decade-old parliamentary speech back into the spotlight. Pramod Mahajan's 1997 speech in the Lok Sabha is being re-heard and shared from social media to political corridors today. The reason is clear, the picture that is being seen in Tamil Nadu politics today looks a lot like the same strange coalition arithmetic that Mahajan mentioned in Parliament in his sarcastic style. Vijay's party TVK has emerged as the largest party in the state, but has not yet been able to form a government. On the other hand, smaller parties are holding the key to power. Political parties are breaking ideological boundaries and looking for new equations, and this has led to the revival of coalition politics of 1997. In the recently held assembly elections, TVK won 108 seats and became the largest party. But TVK and TVK need support for a majority in the 234-member assembly.