TVK majority math — 108 seats, the 118 mark and the by-elections
TVK has 108 of 234 seats; a majority is 118. How outside support, the October by-elections and the pending vacancies change the Tamil Nadu assembly arithmetic.
The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly has 234 seats, so a party needs 118 for a majority of the full House. TVK won 108 seats in April 2026, 10 short. C. Joseph Vijay was sworn in as Chief Minister on 10 May 2026 with outside support from Congress, CPI, CPI(M), VCK and IUML.
Those five parties hold 13 seats between them: Congress 5, CPI 2, CPI(M) 2, VCK 2 and IUML 2. Add them to TVK's 108 and the governing bloc has 121, clear of 118. On the other side, DMK has 59 and AIADMK 41 after the resignations of six of its MLAs.
If TVK wins both Madurantakam and Dharapuram on 9 October it goes to 110 on its own, still 8 short of 118. The bloc would rise to 123. If it loses both, nothing changes in the House arithmetic, because both seats were held by AIADMK in April.
The more important number is the path to a TVK majority without allies. Seven seats are vacant or pending: the two counting now plus Tiruchirappalli East, Ambasamudram, Viralimalai, Karur, Perundurai. Even a clean sweep of all seven would take TVK to 115, still 3 short of 118, which is why each by-election is read as a signal of momentum rather than a change of government.
A practical note on vacancies: the majority mark of 118 assumes a full House. When seats are vacant, the number of votes needed to win a floor test falls, because it is a majority of members present and voting.
What to watch on counting day: the majority ladder on the by-election hub starts at TVK's 108, shows the gap to 118 as a hatched band, and adds a provisional seat for each constituency where TVK is leading. A provisional seat turns solid only when the Election Commission marks the candidate as won. The live figures come from results.eci.gov.in and carry the time they were last scraped.