CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday commenced final hearing of petitions against disqualification of 18 AIADMK legislators, owing allegiance to rebel leader T T V Dhinakaran, with their counsel asserting they only sought a change of the chief minister and never pressed for a trust vote.
It was the DMK which had asked for a floor test for the Palaniswami government in the assembly, senior counsel P S Raman of the disqualified MLAs said in his submissions before Justice M Sathyanarayanan. Countering the argument that the MLAs would have voted against the AIADMK government and brought it down had they not been disqualified, he said the ruling party would have still won the floor test as they were up by three or four MLAs.
Senior counsel Ariyama Sundaram, representing the Speaker, said the issue was not about what the governor could do in such circumstances, but what the MLAs wanted the governor to do, a reference to their demand for changing the chief minister. The MLAs had also informed that they were unwilling to participate in the legislature party meeting to which they were invited, he said.