Tamil Nadu has plunged into a major political crisis with 19 AIADMK MlAs owing allegiance to ousted deputy general secretary TTV Dinakaran withdrawing their support to the Edappadi Palaniswami-led Government on Tuesday.
“Palaniswami has lost his majority and should resign immediately,” said CR Saraswathi, AIADMK spokesperson.
The MlAs numbering 19 drove down to Raj Bhavan on Tuesday morning and submitted individual letters addressed to Governor C Vidyasagar Rao informing him that they have lost trust in Chief Minister Palaniswami and hence were withdrawing support to him.
There are reports that more MlAs would join the Dinakaran camp in days to come as the former had warned of sleeper cells of MlAs in both the OPS and EPS camps.
This means the Palaniswami Government is in a minority in the House, which has an effective strength of 234. One seat is lying vacant following the demise of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
In addition to this, M Karunanidhi, the DMK chief, is confined to bed due to a series of ailments and would not be able to make to the House, bringing the total strength of the House to 232.
The Government led by Palaniswami now has the support of 133 members following the merger of the OPS camp. But if the 19 MlAs of the Dinakaran faction join hands with the 98 MlAs of the Opposition, the Palaniswami Government will lose in the ensuing trust-vote.
“Palaniswamy has lost the right to govern and should submit his resignation at the earliest,” said Saraswathy, a close confidante of Sasikala. In another development, V K Divakaran, younger brother of Sasikala, declared that there was no possibility for the survival of the Palaniswamy Government. “It is doubtful whether ths Government would see the light of the day,” Divakaran, popularly known as Boss, told reporters at Thanjavur, the Mannargudi clan’s stronghold.
Adding to the woes of Palaniswamy, the DMK working president MK Stalin, who is also the leader of the Opposition, has written to the Governor on Tuesday urging him to convene the Assembly at the earliest and ask the Government to prove its majority on the floor of the House.
The development comes hardly 24 hours after the Palaniswamy Government staged a political coup by getting the O Panneerselvam -led faction to join the Government and declaring the merger of the two factions viz the Amma and the Puratchi Thalaivi Amma.
On Monday, Panneerselvam and K Pandiarajan, one of his camp followers, were inducted into the council of Ministers led by Palaniswamy. As per the merger formula, Sasikala, the jailed general secretary of the AIADK was to be eased out soon. D Jayakumar, a Minister in the EPS Government and R Vaidhilingam MP, who was appointed as the deputy co-ordinator of the new steering committee of the party, had declared that the general council of the AIADMK would be convened soon to expel Sasikala.
The Dinakaran faction struck back within hours by expelling Vaithilingam from the party itself. A statement issued by Dinakaran asked party cadre not to have any dealings hereafter with Vaidhilingam.
Managers of the Dinakaran faction ferried the 19 MlAs to an undisclosed resort in the union territory of Puducherry by Tuesday evening owned by a close associate of TNCC president Thirunavakkarassar (himself a former leader of the AIADMK and belonging to the same community as that of Sasikala). The Sasikala faction had ferried the MlAs at the peak of the crisis in February 2017 following the revolt by Panneerselvam.
It may be noted that the Dinakaran camp was in touch with both the DMK and the Congress leadership since the crisis broke out in the party.
Though all the non-BJP political parties blame the BJP for the crisis in the AIADMK, Sarvothaman, senior spokesman of the BJP scoffed at such allegations.