Overview
- Vijay’s TVK government won the Assembly confidence vote Wednesday with 144 in favour, as 22 opposed and the DMK walked out before voting.
- Support came from Congress, the CPI and CPI(M), the VCK, the IUML and expelled AMMK MLA S. Kamaraj, plus roughly two dozen AIADMK MLAs who broke with Edappadi K. Palaniswami.
- The AIADMK fracture was on open display when the Velumani–Shanmugam faction backed the government despite a party whip to vote against it, and Speaker JCD Prabhakar let the rebel leader speak in the House.
- Cross-voting now faces anti-defection tests because two-thirds of AIADMK’s 47 MLAs—32 members—are needed to avoid disqualification, and the rebel tally falls short, leaving petitions for the Speaker to decide.
- The Madras High Court barred TVK MLA R. Seenivasa Sethupathy from voting over a one-vote result dispute, and the case has moved to the Supreme Court, signaling continued judicial scrutiny of the numbers.