BackDMK to vote against Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi K. Palaniswami
Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi K. Palaniswami claims to have the support of 123 legislators from AIADMK, compared with O. Panneerselvam's 11 MLAs
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Chennai:New Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami faces a floor test on Saturday to prove he has the support of a majority of government legislators, with the opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) signalling its intent to vote against him even as the Congress remained undecided.
Palaniswami was sworn in on Thursday, along with a 31-member cabinet, and was asked to seek the vote of confidence in the next 15 days. Tamil Nadu assembly speaker P. Dhanapal convened the assembly and said that the vote of confidence would be taken at 11am on Saturday.
Palaniswami claims to have the support of 123 legislators from the ruling All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), compared with former chief minister O. Panneerselvam’s 11 MLAs.
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The 234-member Tamil Nadu assembly’s current strength is 233, after the R.K. Nagar constituency fell vacant following late chief minister J. Jayalalithaa’s death on 5 December. In addition, there is one nominated member from the Anglo-Indian community, who doesn’t have voting rights.
On Friday, Mylapore MLA and former director general of police R. Nataraj confirmed that he would vote against the Palaniswami government. Both the DMK and its ally Congress have decided to vote against the chief minister designate.
“In an attempt to condemn the anti-people AIADMK government, the DMK has decided to vote against (Edappadi) in the confidence motion tomorrow at the assembly," said DMK’s working president M.K. Stalin.
Congress, however, said it is undecided and will finalize its decision by Saturday morning.
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The Election Commission on Friday issued a notice to V.K. Sasikala based on a petition filed by Rajya Sabha MP V. Maitreyan and others challenging the nomination of Sasikala as general secretary of the AIADMK. Sasikala has been asked to reply by 28 February 2017.
For Saturday, the speaker has the option to do either one of the following—ask the members to stand for the vote count, or order an oral vote, secret ballot or electronic ballot.
Just a day ahead of the floor test, K. Pandiarajan, S. Semmalai and other senior leaders from the Panneerselvam faction, met the speaker and are believed to have requested a secret ballot.
Tamil Nadu assembly secretary A.M.P. Jamaludeen in a statement on Friday said that school education minister K. A. Sengottaiyan had been appointed leader of the house—a post earlier held by Panneerselvam.
With Sasikala elected as the AIADMK legislature party leader on 5 February, Panneerselvam resigned to enable her become chief minister, only to revolt against her on 7 February, alleging he was forced to step down.
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On 15 February, just hours before leaving for the Parappana Agrahara prison in Bengaluru, Sasikala—convicted in a disproportionate assets case—appointed her nephew T.T.V. Dinakaran as the deputy general secretary of the party, indicating that she will call the shots through her family. Another of Sasikala’s nephew, S. Venkatesh was also reinstated in the party. Both Dinakaran and Venkatesh were removed from the AIADMK by the late chief minister J. Jayalalithaa in 2011 for “anti-party activities".
Meanwhile, E. Madusudhanan, who joined the Panneerselvam camp last week, was replaced by Sengottaiyan as the Presidium Chairman and removed from the AIADMK’s primary membership—something the Panneerselvam faction insisted Sasikala had no authority to do—claiming her appointment as general secretary of the party on 31 December was against AIADMK bylaws.
Following this, Madusudhanan on Friday announced that he had “expelled 13 members" of the party, including the Palanisamy and Sasikala.
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