Chennai, May 11:
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and TVK Founder C Joseph Vijay was on Monday sworn in as member of House, when the first session of the 17th Legislative Assembly was convened on to enable the newly-elected MLAs to take oath or affirmation as members.
Soon after the House assembled for day at 9.30 AM, Protem Speaker M V Karuppiah, who was already sworn-in by Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar on Sunday evening, read out a Thirukkural couplet and signed the Assembly register having taken his oath already.
He then invited the members, starting with the Chief Minister, his Cabinet colleagues, Leader of the Opposition and DMK member Udhayanidhi Stalin, former Chief Ministers Edappadi K Palaniswami (AIADMK) and O Panneerselvam (DMK) and former Ministers by producing their Certificate of Election in the House.
Then other MLAs took as members of the House one by one in the alphabetical order.
Only eight of the nine new Ministers took oath as members as the lone woman Legislator S Keerthana forgot to bring her certificate and she would be sworn in as MLA later.
After all the 233 MLAs took their oath in the 234-member Assembly (Vijay resigning from Tiruchy East and retaining the Perambur seat having won from two seats), a process that would continue till this evening, the House would be adjourned for the day.
The proceedings would resume tomorrow when the elections for the post of Speaker and the Deputy Speaker would be held, to be followed by Vijay providing his majority in the House on May 13, Wednesday, as directed by the Governor while inviting him to form the Government late on Saturday evening.
Vijay in his first stint in electoral politics within two years of floating his own outfit, made a stunning entry winning 108 seats, heralding a new era in the Dravidian heartland and ending the six-decade long entrenched biopolar domination by DMK and AIADMK, with the actor-turned-politician himself winning from two seats.
As the TVK technically has 107 MLAs, he fell short of majority by 11 members and after reaching out to some of the key DMK allies and getting the support, Vijay had met the Governor along with leaders of supporting parties, handed over their letters of support and staked his claim to form the government ending the week long political deadlock, following which he the first Vijay Sarkar was coronated on Sunday morning.
After a week long drama that was marked by multiple developments the impasse finally ended when Vijay finally secured unconditional support from the Congress, which broke ranks with the DMK and allied with TVK and pledged the support of its five MLAs, while CPI, CPI-M, VCK and IUML, with two MLAs each, offered outside support and decided to stay within the DMK alliance, by not participating in the government.
Congress too was set to join the government and two of its MLAs was said to be sworn in as Ministers yesterday in the presence of Senior leader Rahul Gandhi, who attended the Vijay Sarkar coronation ceremony. However, it did not happen and they were expected to be accommodated in the Cabinet expansion to be effected once Vijay proved his majority in the House leading to Tamil Nadu having its first ever coalition government in its political history. It will also mark the Congress becoming part of the government after a gap of 59 years, when the K Kamaraj regime was ousted in the 1967 polls by the DMK, ending the era of Congress rule in the state.