Hyderabad: Five Tamil Nadu Congress MLAs landed in Hyderabad on Friday night amid fears of alleged poaching attempts by rival political parties during the uncertainty over govt formation in the state. However, the political suspense ended within 24 hours after governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar on Saturday evening invited C Joseph Vijay, president of Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), to form the govt and handed him the appointment letter. The Congress MLAs flew back to Chennai late on Saturday night.The five Congress MLAs — P Vishwanathan (Melur), who also served as one of the AICC secretaries in Telangana, Jamal Mohammed Younoos (Mayiladuthurai), Tharahai Cuthbret (Colachel), T T Praveen (Vilavancode), and S Rajesh Kumar (Killiyoor) — were staying at a star hotel in the city.The prolonged political uncertainty in Tamil Nadu finally came to an end on Saturday evening when Vijay, leader of the single largest party, met governor Arlekar at Lok Bhavan and staked claim to form the govt with the support of 120 MLAs-elect in the 234-member Assembly.The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee has already extended support to the Vijay-led TVK, enabling the party to secure the numbers required to form the govt.Sources said if Vijay’s TVK forms govt, Congress MLA P Vishwanathan is likely to be inducted into the cabinet.The decision to shift the five MLAs to Hyderabad was reportedly authorised by the AICC leadership. The Congress party had earlier made it clear that it would support a “secular govt” to keep the AIADMK-BJP alliance out of power.The AICC and the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee reportedly chose Hyderabad because Telangana has a Congress govt, making it a ‘secure location’ where the MLAs could remain under the supervision and protection of Telangana Congress leaders and security personnel.Interestingly, a similar strategy was adopted in 2018, when more than 100 Congress and JD(S) MLAs from Karnataka were moved to star hotels in Hyderabad to prevent alleged poaching attempts by rival parties ahead of the floor test in the Karnataka Assembly.
