First, Governor Rajendra Arlekar asked Vijay to prove his majority despite the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam emerging as the single largest party. Then, just as the party appeared to have secured enough support, the arithmetic became wobbly again, prompting the Governor to defer Vijay’s Saturday morning swearing-in. A similar crisis was playing out around the same time nearly 75 years ago in the same region. The 1952 Assembly election in the erstwhile Madras State — made up of the present-day Tamil Nadu , Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh — threw up independent India’s very first fractured verdict. The deadlock set in motion a series of events involving Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru that would eventually lead to statesman C Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) stepping in as the state’s Chief Minister between April 1952 and April 1954.…