Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswamy (EPS) will seek a vote of confidence in the Assembly at 11 am on Saturday, the first such floor test the State will witness in about 30 years, even as the sacking drama in the party continued well into the night on Friday.
Though EPS, who was sworn in on Thursday, had been asked by Governor Vidyasagar Rao to seek the vote of confidence within 15 days, the Chief Minister opted for an early floor test.
The AIADMK faction owing allegiance to VK Sasikala claims the support of 124 MlAs in the House which has a strength of 234 members. One seat is vacant following the demise of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
However, the rival faction led by O Panneerselvam (OPS), the former Chief Minister, is claiming the support of 11 MlAs on the eve of the trust vote, MlA R Natraj, a former State DGP, said he would vote against EPS’ motion of confidence. Natraj’s move has reduced EPS’ stated support to 123 members in a House of 234.
Speaking to reporters Natraj said he does not consider this as a confidence vote, but a ‘conscience vote.’
In another development, the OPS camp on Friday “removed” Sasikala and her two nephews from the party for “going against its principles and ideals”.
In a statement, E Madusudanan, who was earlier removed as presidium chairman by Sasikala, said she had “violated” her promise to the late Jayalalithaa that she will not enter politics and that she had no inclination to be a part of the party or Government. He asked cadres not to have any association with Sasikala.
Members of the OPS faction also met Speaker P Dhanapal on Friday, a day ahead of EPS’ floor test. The team which included K Pandiarajan, S Semmalai and Shanmuganthan (all MlAs) and senior leader C Ponnaiyan, however, did not reveal to the waiting media details of their meeting.
What has made the situation “tense” is the decision by the principal Opposition party the DMK to oppose the vote of confidence. The DMK has 89 members in the Assembly. With the DMK deciding to vote against the EPS Government, the Congress (eight members) and the lone member of the Muslim league too decided to follow suit. This led EPS to rush to the Koovathur retreat where the AIADMK MlAs have been put up since last week.
Senior AIADMK leaders themselves do not rule out the possibility of some of the MlAs in the retreat voting against the motion. Officials of the Intelligence wings too feel that there are possibilities of a major upset and this has led to the situation in TN becoming tense, reminding one of a Twenty-20 cricket match between India and Pakistan.
Meanwhile, more than 100 supporters of the OPS camp were on Friday arrested for trying to take out rallies here to urge AIADMK MlAs to take a “fair decision” during the confidence vote.
As part of precautionary measures the rallies have been banned, police said.
The supporters of OPS claimed that the police were acting in an “undemocratic manner”.
“We are only undertaking a democratic rally... Police have no right to prevent or instigate any person against such rallies,” they said while shouting slogans against the police.
Old timers in Chennai do not rule out the possibility of the session turning ugly. “We have seen how the session convened to seek vote of confidence for the Janaki Raachandran-led Government in January 1988 turned ugly and became a blot in the history of TN. The MlAs were seen fighting against each other and police entered the House and lathi-charged them to disperse the warring AIADMK legislators,” said Sam Rajappa, veteran scribe who was on reporting assignment in the House on the fateful day.