Thalapathy Vijay’s TVK deals another major blow to AIADMK, four former MLAs join actor’s party

The TVK has dealt another blow to the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu. Four former party MLAs have joined the TVK in the presence of Adhav Arjun.

Updated: June 6, 2026, 4:25 PM IST

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Thalapathy Vijay’s TVK deals another major blow to AIADMK, four former MLAs join actor’s party (Pic: Twitter)

The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) party has suffered another major blow. Four former ministers and former MLAs of the party joined the ruling party on Saturday at the TVK headquarters in Chennai. The leaders who joined TVK include Udumalai K Radhakrishnan, MC Sampath, Kadambur C Raju and NR Sivapathy. All of them joined the ruling party in the presence of TVK General Secretary Anand and General Secretary of Election Campaign Management Aadhav Arjun.

25 MLAs supported

Following its crushing defeat in the April 23 elections, the AIADMK has been facing a series of setbacks. First, a rebel group of 25 MLAs supported the vote of confidence moved by Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay in the Assembly, despite the party’s chief whip’s mandate to vote against the motion. Four of these rebel MLAs resigned and joined the TVK. However, the rebel group later reconciled with General Secretary Edappadi Palaniswami. Since then, several AIADMK officials have left the party and joined the TVK. The latest example is the departure of four former AIADMK ministers.

Who are the four leaders who left AIADMK?

• Udumalai Radhakrishnan, who joined TVK, lost the election from Udumalpet assembly constituency this time.
• Sampath finished third from Cuddalore Assembly constituency.
• Kadambur Raju also lost from Kovilpatti assembly constituency.

These leaders have also left

On May 29, more than 300 AIADMK members joined the TVK at the TVK headquarters in Panaiyur, Chennai. Among those who defected from the AIADMK were former ministers Vellamandi Natarajan and Anandan, as well as former MLAs Natarajan and Sadhan Prabhakar. K. A. Sengottaiyan was the first prominent leader to leave the AIADMK and join the TVK. He had strongly supported Vijay well before the election.

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Congress got its first support

To form the government, Vijay sought support from the DMK-led coalition. TVK initially received support from the Congress. Congress, after splitting from the DMK alliance, supported the TVK government. The party subsequently received two ministerial positions and a Rajya Sabha seat. The Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) initially decided to support the government from outside, but later joined the government and received one ministerial position each.