Power Has Changed the Script: TVK’s First Real Test of Political Morality.

By Jameel Aahmed Milansaar.

Tamil Nadu politics has stepped into dangerous territory. The resignation of four AIADMK MLAs and their sudden migration to the ruling TVK under Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay may be dressed up as political realignment, but the public is not naïve. People have watched this script before in State after State — elected representatives abandoning the mandate they received, only to conveniently land beside power.

What makes this episode more troubling is not merely the defections themselves, but the hypocrisy surrounding them. TVK was projected as a fresh alternative, a movement supposedly built on transparency, dignity, and clean governance. Vijay’s political rise carried the emotional investment of ordinary people tired of cynical power games. Yet within a short span, the same culture of backroom engineering that TVK once appeared to reject has entered its own corridors.

This is exactly why public faith in politics continues to collapse. Voters elect parties based on ideology, promises, and trust — not so MLAs can treat mandates like transferable property after elections. When defections become normalised, democracy slowly turns into a marketplace where loyalty has an auction value.

Supporters may defend this as political practicality. But morality cannot be selectively suspended the moment power becomes available. If TVK truly intended to redefine Tamil Nadu politics, it should have drawn a clear line against opportunistic defections instead of benefiting from them.

Because the moment a party imitates the methods it once criticised, it stops being an alternative and simply becomes another participant in the same old game.