Four former ministers from the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam quit the party and joined the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam on Saturday, The Hindu reported.

They are MC Sampath, NR Sivapathi, Kadambur C Raju and Udumalai K Radhakrishnan. Except for Sivapathi, the other three had contested and lost the Assembly elections in May.

Sampath had contested from the Cuddalore constituency, Raju had contested from Kovilpatti in the Thoothukudi district and Radhakrishnan was in the fray from Udumalpet in the Tiruppur district.

All four of them had served as ministers under AIADMK leaders J Jayalalithaa and Edappadi K Palaniswamy. On Saturday, they joined Tamil Nadu’s ruling party at its headquarters in Panaiyur on the outskirts of Chennai.

Former Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MLA J Karunanidhi also joined the TVK along with them, India Today reported.

The TVK, led by Chief Minister Vijay, formed the government with the support of the Congress, the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi and the Indian Union Muslim League.

The DMK won 59 seats, while the AIADMK won 47 constituencies.

Vijay took oath as chief minister on May 10, and the TVK won a floor test three days later.

During the floor test, 25 AIADMK MLAs led by former ministers CV Shanmugam and SP Velumani voted in favour of the new government. Of the 25, four MLAs – Maragatham Kumaravel, Sathyabama P, Jayakumar S and Esakki Subaya – resigned from the party and joined the TVK the same day.

Twenty-two MLAs led by former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami had voted against the government.

This had led to a rift within the AIADMK, with MLAs from the two groups filing disqualification petitions against each other. However, on May 27, the two groups arrived at a truce, and withdrew the disqualification petitions.

Edited by Sara Varghese.