The Tamil Nadu legislative Assembly will meet from June 14 for 24 days amid uncertainty and allegations of bribe. While the Assembly will debate on the grants for various departments, the Madras High Court on Friday will hear a petition moved by the Opposition DMK seeking a directive for CBI probe into allegations that the AIADMK MlAs were offered cash running to crores of rupees and gold in return for supporting the Palaniswamy Government during the trust vote held on Februaty 2017.
Monday night saw a leading TV channel coming out with startling disclosures made by a MlA belonging to the O Panneerselvam faction that the Sasikala clan had offered crores of rupees to each MlAs for their support during the trust vote sought by Chief Minister Edappady Palaniswamy in February 2017.
SS Saravanan, the MlA who had escaped from the heavily fortified resort where the 123 AIADMK MlAs were kept in captivity for weeks to ensure the survival of the Palaniswamy Government, told TV channels that he and three others, P Vetrivel, R Kanakaraj and M Tamimun Ansari, were offered crores of rupees and gold to vote in favour of the Government during the trust vote. This has created a furore in Tamil Nadu politics with all senior Opposition leaders demanding immediate probe into the allegation by special investigation teams or by a sitting judge of the Madras High Court.
MK Stalin, leader of the Opposition and working president of the DMK, demanded the immediate dismissal of the Government headed by Palaniswamy. “We will be meeting the Governor and President seeking the dismissal of the Government. The House too should be dissolved and fresh election should be ordered,” said Stalin reacting to the disclosures made by the MlA.
The session is certain to witness unprecedented stand off between the Government and the Opposition in the backdrop of the revelation by the AIADMK MlA and a host of other issues, including farmers’s problems. The Opposition has alleged that the Government is indifferent to the needs of the farmers.
Political commentators like G Satyamurty are of the view that there is no immediate threat of the Government falling down. “The AIADMK factions which are fighting each other would stand united in an hour of crisis because they know well that none of them would see the House again if an election is held now,” he said.
When the Assembly last met in the month of March for the presentation of the 2017-2018 budget proposals, there were only two factions in the ruling AIADMK in the House. The interregnum saw the emergence of a third faction led by TTV Dinakaran, deputy general secretary and nephew of the jailed VK Sasikala, the general secretary of the AIADMK, which has made the Palaniswamy Government vulnerable to poaching by the Opposition.
This is the first time in the recent history of Tamil Nadu a Government with clear majority in the House is facing unprecedented uncertainty and threat of poaching, pointed out another veteran commentator.
Meanwhile, the factions are competing against one another for submitting the maximum number of letters of support from the district level leaders and workers addressed to the Election Commission of India for getting the coveted ‘Two leaves’ symbol.