New Delhi: The Congress party has officially announced on Wednesday (May 6) that its five elected representatives will support Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), led by C. Joseph Vijay, to form the next state government in Tamil Nadu and also for “future elections” in the state.In a statement, All India Congress Committee (AICC) in charge for Tamil Nadu Girish Chodankar said that the decision was taken after Vijay has formally requested support of the Congress party for forming a government in Tamil Nadu.“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 statement read.It added: “This alliance between the TVK and the Tamil Nadu Congress will strive to bring back Perunthalaivar Kamaraj’s glory days of Tamil Nadu, with a strong commitment to Thanthai Periyar’s social justice ideals and Dr. BR Ambedkar’s constitutional ideals in the years and decades to come.Notably, the statement suggested that this alliance is a long-term partnership between the Congress and the TVK even for local bodies, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha elections.“This alliance – founded on mutual respect, appropriate share, and shared responsibility between the two parties is not only for the formation of this government, but also for future elections to the local body organisations, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha,” it mentioned.Also read: In Tamil Nadu, a TVK Candidate Won by Only One VoteFurther, the statement underlined that the TVK chief and Leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha (LoP) and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi jointly pledge to respect this historic verdict of the people of Tamil Nadu for a secular and progressive government, and to “fulfil the dreams and promises of the people especially the youth of Tamil Nadu”.We are 🤝 pic.twitter.com/hj5bFW5QEH— Manickam Tagore .B🇮🇳மாணிக்கம் தாகூர்.ப (@manickamtagore) May 6, 2026The move is significant considering the Congress has broken its longstanding alliance with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). It remains to be seen how the INDIA bloc reshapes amidst these changing equations.Commenting on the development, Congress MP Jothimani said that there are “bound to be ups and downs” in an alliance.“In politics, alliances forming and breaking is only natural. Even the DMK, just a week before announcing the 2014 parliamentary elections, expelled the Congress party from a long-standing alliance. We were suddenly pushed into contesting alone. For that, we didn’t harshly criticise the DMK. We understood it as a political stance. Now, the Congress party is compelled to take a political stance. Therefore, it’s best for us to part ways from the alliance with mutual respect. We must avoid using harsh words on both sides,” the Karur MP wrote in a post on X.Also read: Eleven Quick Takeaways From the Assembly Election ResultsShe added: “Especially in the current situation where the DMK has faced defeat in the elections – and that too with the chief minister, elder brother M.K. Stalin himself having lost – it’s neither political decency nor the culture of the Congress party to have been in the alliance until yesterday and then criticise it with extreme ferocity. The Congress party too has suffered continuous defeats in three parliamentary elections. There are various national-level reasons for that. If anyone takes the stance that no alliances should be formed because of it, the Congress party couldn’t lead the INDIA alliance at the national level in India.”TVK has also reached out to Communist Party of India (CPI), which was also a part of the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA), seeking their support for forming the government in the southern state. The CPI has two seats.TVK has won 108 seats, falling short of the half way mark of 118 in the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly.Meanwhile, Vijay met Tamil Nadu governor Rajendra Arlekar alongside senior TVK functionaries on Wednesday afternoon and staked a claim to form a new government in the state.However, according to the Indian Express, Arlekar said Vijay would need to provide proof of a numerical majority before he could be invited to form a new government.This, writes the newspaper’s Arun Janardhanan, has put a spanner in the TVK’s plans for Vijay to take oath on Thursday or on Friday before seeking two weeks’ time to prove a majority on the floor of the assembly.This article was updated with information about Vijay staking claim to form a new government.