TTV Dinakaran, who was eased out of the post of deputy general secretary of the AIADMK in the General Council meeting held on Tuesday, declared on Friday that the Palaniswami-led Tamil Nadu Government will fall down in one week’s time.
Speaking to journalists at Chennai, Dinakaran said the Government would not last more than a week. His declaration comes a day after the Madras High Court ordered that Tamil Nadu assembly should not hold floor test till September 20.
Though Dinakaran had told many times that he would bring down the Government, this is the first time he is setting a time frame to send Palaniswami and ministers packing home.
The Palaniswami Government has the support of only 111 members in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, which has an effective strength of 233 MlAs. A controversy over the Constitutional powers of the Speaker and the authority of the judiciary over legislature is brewing up in Tamil Nadu.
Speaker Dhanapal is considering the recommendation from the Government for disqualifying the 19 AIADMK MlAs, who wrote to the Governor that they were withdrawing support to the Chief Minister. When the Madras High Court on Thursday asked the Advocate General about the fate of the 19 MlAs, the court was told that it cannot interfere in the powers of the Speaker.
There are reports that the rebel MlAs would be disqualified in time for the trust vote. This is expected to help Palaniswami in defeating the plans of the Opposition DMK to topple the Government.
Meanwhile, the lefts are encouraging all anti-Government groups to intensify the agitation against the NEET. The Congress, which enacted the law making NEET compulsory in 2011 has come out with a new explanation justifying the party’s present stance on the issue.
“It is true that the UPA Government proposed NEET. However our Government did not make it compulsory. It was to be implemented only if the States wanted it,” S Thiruvanukarassar, the TNCC presidet, a former Sangh Parivar leader, told reporters.
The Government got a morale boosting victory as a section of Government employees, including teachers who were agitating for the last one week, called off the strike on Friday.
The government employees were demanding the implementation of the recommendations made by the Seventh Pay Commission as well as the scrapping of the new pension scheme.