Congress Warned Not to Take TVK Lightly, Says Wave Favoured Vijay's Party

"No, we have not contacted any person in TVK. They have not contacted me. I don't know if they've contacted our PCC president or anybody else," he told ANI.

Chodankar said that he had warned earlier about taking the debut political party "lightly" adding that the people have voted for change in the State.

"The people have voted for change. Youngsters and women have voted in favour of TVK. We respect the mandate of the people. TVK has not contacted me. I don't know if they have contacted any other person from the party. Earlier, I had alerted everyone not to take TVK lightly," he told ANI.

He further said that his party will not "manipulate" the mandate of the people.

"This result is that people have voted for change. Especially youngsters and the women have gone and voted for TVK. And mandate is in favour of TVK. So we respect the mandate of the people. We will honour the mandate of the people and we will not try to manipulate the mandate of the people. We will not disrespect the mandate of the people. That is what Congress party always believes in. Whether we like the mandate, we don't like the mandate, the people have given their verdict. And in a democracy, the people's verdict is supreme. We have seen that they have given TVK... they have made it as a single largest party.

TVK, a new entrant into the state politics, won 108 seats in the 234-seat Tamil Nadu assembly but, however falling 10 short of the 118 halfway majority mark the party will need support from other parties to form the new government in the State.

Asked whether Congress will be supporting the TVK to form the government, Chadonkar said that the decision would be taken by the party High Command.

"They have gone to election with Vijay as the face and people have given them the single largest party status. They are short of around 10 seats. Now the ball is in their court. They have to play this game. They have to manage..." he said

"But by and large, the messages and phone calls I'm getting from our cadre is that they think that since the people have given the mandate to TVK and they are secular forces, so we have to somehow support the secular forces. This is what the feedback is coming to me from various cadres, leaders and all of that. So let's see what party will take a final decision on this," the Tamil Nadu Congress in-charge said.

"They will first have to set their order because they have not even elected their leader. So once that is done, they may approach us or they may not approach us. So it is up to them," Chandonkar said.

Asked about the DMK performance in the State and the Congress party's decision to remain aligned with the DMK for the polls Chandonkar said, "We were given 28 seats by the DMK, but the wave was in favour of TVK. And so unfortunately, our honourable Chief Minister also lost this time, which we never expected."

Chodankar's remarks follow TVK's efforts towards government formation in Tamil Nadu, after party chief Vijay met with newly elected MLAs at Panaiyur headquarters in Chennai. Several senior TVK politicians, including General Secretary Aadhav Arjuna and others also, arrived at the party headquarters in Panaiyur.

Vijay, earlier today met with his party's winning candidates at party's headquarters in Panayiur to decide on the next steps.

TVK stunned the 'Dravidian' parties in the State, bringing to an end the DMK-AIADMK three- decade-old 'duopoly'.

Candidates of the debut party ended up defeating many stellar politicians in the State, including Chief Minister MK Stalin from Kolathur, DMK stalwart Duraimurugan, Union Minister L Murugan, and former Tamil Nadu BJP president Tamilisasi Soundarajan.

TVK chief Vijay himself won from both the constituencies, Tiruchirapalli East and Perambur and proved that his charisma is not limited to cinema.

MS Babu of the TVK won against Chief Minister MK Stalin by 8795 votes in Kolathur, a seat which the DMK chief had held from 2011.

Duraimurugan, who has been amongst the longest serving MLAs in Tamil Nadu assembly lost to TVK's M. Sudhakar in Katpadi by 7309 votes. Murugan, contesting from Avinashi, was defeated by a margin of 15373 votes against TVK's Kamali S. Meanwhile, Soundarajan, who contested from Mylapore, lost against TVK's Venkataramanan P by 28972 votes, and stood in the third place.

KR Periyakaruppan the DMK minister in Stalin's cabinet lost out by just one vote to TVK's Seenivasa Sethupathy. Sethupathy secured 83,365 votes, edging past Periyakaruppan, who polled 83,364 votes.

- ANI