CHENNAI: The expelled 18 AIADMK legislators, who were disqualified by the Assembly Speaker, had never intended to remove Chief Minister Edapaddi K Palaniswami and make K A Sengottaiyan the head of government, as reported by a section of media, the counsel representing the expelled MLAs informed the Madras High Court.
Denying reports that the MLAs petitioned the Governor with an intention to remove the CM, senior counsel PS Raman said he only said that it was widely reported in major English dailies that Sengottaiyan would be made the Chief Minister, replacing Palaniswami. But it was not the intention of the MLAs to do so, he added.
This apart, pointing out the submission made on behalf of the Speaker that he did not act against O Panneerselvam and 10 other MLAs when they voted against the motion of confidence moved by Palaniswami, in view of the pending dispute over the party and the Two Leaves symbol before the Election Commission of India (ECI), Raman said, “This applies to us too. Till the ECI passed its order on November 12, 2017 the AIADMK did not exist. The present case and that of Yeddiyurappa case are similar and closely linked in the factual matrix.”
The constitutional process as sought by the 18 MLAs in their letter to the Governor did not necessarily mean the constitutional process of proclamation of the President’s rule but could also mean the process of removal of the Chief Minister through constitutional means, he added.
The AIADMK was not deprived of a further opportunity of forming government after a change in the legislature party leadership. The Yeddyurappa case has been holding the field for the past seven years and that the letter written by the 18 MLAs was similar to those sent by the BJP MLAs to the Karnataka Governor, Raman argued.
However, to a pointed question put forth by Justice M Sundar whether the 18 MLAs in the event of a floor test would have voted as per the Whip or not, the senior counsel preferred not to commit himself with either a yes or no, stating that it would have solely depended on the state of mind of the MLAs then.
As all parties to the pleas had concluded their arguments, the bench posted the cases to January 23 for the parties to file their respective written arguments in the matter.
AIADMK expels 50 grassroots-level functionaries
Chennai: Days after AIADMK presidium chairman E Madhusudhanan, the defeated party candidate in the recent RK Nagar by-election, sought action against those who had acted against him in the by-election, party coordinator O Panneerselvam and joint coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami on Friday expelled 50 grassroot-level functionaries in North Chennai for anti-party activities.