Chennai, May 4 -- As trends of counting of votes by the Election Commission of India in Tamil Nadu emerged on Monday, the Tamila Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) seemed to be inching closer to the halfway mark of 117.

The party was leading in 107 seats after 10 rounds of counting, a stellar performance for their poll debut, which has managed to dash the hopes of a third term for the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).

While the TVK hopes for forming a non-alliance government, smaller parties in the state are also likely to extend support to the TVK if trends persist for the party.

The party is hoping to break the duopoly between the DMK and the AIADMK, with both parties assuming power in the state since 1999. The DMK hoped to repeat their 1999-2009 ...