India, May 9 -- Just around 5 pm on Saturday, Vijay finally had his 120.

By 7:10 pm, the Governor was set to be airborne, leaving him possibly in the lurch again.

And in between, came more suspense, as the Governor was first learnt to have cancelled what would have been a fourth and possibly decisive meeting; and later the meeting was set. The governor cancelled his trip for now, HT learnt.

A cloak-and-dagger - or should we say 'clock' and dagger? - thus continued to play out in Tamil Nadu, even as Vijay now looked closer than ever to becoming chief minister.

With the VCK and IUML finally in the fold, TVK has the numbers, but the man who must act on them had an IndiGo booking from Chennai to Thiruvananthapuram, which he decided not to...