CHENNAI: Gearing up for the trust vote on Saturday, the ruling AIADMK received yet another jolt after one of its MLAs, a former top cop, said he would vote against Chief Minister 'Edappadi' K Palanisamy's motion of confidence in the state Assembly. This has reduced Palanisamy's support to only 123 members (excluding the Speaker's vote) in the all-important special Assembly session convened tomorrow morning at 11 am.
"I'm feeling heavy inside. People and party cadres are extremely angry about the recent developments and I have to respect their feelings. So mine will be a conscience vote and not just a confidence vote tomorrow," Mylapore MLA R Natraj told Express.
Natraj was a DGP before retiring and taking a plunge into politics by contesting the May 2016 Assembly polls from Mylapore in Chennai on AIADMK ticket. Though he refrained from taking sides in the ongoing political battle for the chief minister's post between Palanisamy and his predecessor, rebel leader O Panneerselvam, Natraj said people in not just Mylapore but other constituencies too were clearly opposing Palanisamy as the chief minister.
Changing his earlier stance of trying to unite both Sasikala and Pannerselvam factions, Natraj said the 'right approach' was not happening. He refused to answer on switching sides and extending support to the rival camp, stating that he was against split vote within the government. "This mandate was not won by Pannerselvam or Palanisamy, but late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. So what is the point in claiming their rights on it over and over again?"