TVK Govt wins maiden trust vote with ease
The four-day-old TVK Government in Tamil Nadu crossed a major hurdle on Wednesday, comfortably winning the trust vote with the support of 25 rebel AIADMK MLAs amid DMK’s walkout. The Opposition made allegations of horse-trading that were rejected by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay.
In its confidence-boosting win, TVK romped home by a 144:22 margin, with all the 22 naysayers being the AIADMK MLAs owing allegiance to party chief Edappadi K Palaniswami. The 25 other party MLAs, from the C Ve Shanmugam-SP Velumani camp, voted in favour of the Government.
Replying to discussions over the resolution moved by him seeking vote of confidence, Vijay said his Government will always be secular and would continue to implement the welfare schemes launched by previous regimes. While the main opposition DMK, with 59 MLAs in the 234-member House staged a walkout slamming the Government, PMK with 4 MLAs and the lone member of the BJP abstained.
The Vijay-led TVK Government got support from the Congress, VCK, Left, IUML and MLA S Kamaraj, who was expelled from AMMK for supporting TVK. In an embarrassment, the split in the AIADMK came into the open during the trust vote proceedings as the faction led by party leaders Velumani-Shanmugam voted in favour of the Government.
Though minutes before Velumani announced support, Palaniswami had declared in the House that his party MLAs must vote against the government. The Velumani-Shanmugam-led group defied the diktat and sided with the TVK regime. Noisy scenes were witnessed as Palaniswami’s faction opposed Velumani-Shanmugam group’s announcement of support to the Government.
In the 234-member House, 118 is the simple majority mark, and at the time of voting TVK — which won 108 seats — had a strength of 105, as one party MLA was barred from voting by court; Vijay resigned from Tiruchi-East and Speaker JCD Prabhakar cannot vote in the absence of a “tie” situation. Speaker JCD Prabhakar, after conducting the voting exercise, declared that the resolution moved by the chief minister seeking vote of confidence of the Assembly has won, and as many as 144 MLAs voted with the government; 22 MLAs opposed, and five took a neutral stand.
TN Govt revokes appointment of astrologer as OSD to CM Vijay
Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Government on Wednesday revoked its order appointing Rickey Radhan Pandit Vettrivel, an astrologer, as the Officer on Special Duty (OSD - Political) to Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay.
The decision to withdraw the Government Order (GO) comes less than 24 hours after the appointment was made on Tuesday, following a wave of sharp criticism from political opponents and allies of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) alike.
The appointment had sparked a heated debate in the State Assembly earlier in the day. Opposition leaders, including DMDK general secretary Premalatha Vijayakanth, strongly condemned the move on the floor of the House, questioning the induction of an astrologer into a key political administrative role.
