PUDUCHERRY: Stating that Lt. Governor Tamilisai Sounderarajan had committed a historical mistake by terming the three nominated MLAs as BJP members, chief minister V Narayanasamy on Friday night said that he had written a letter to her seeking clarification.
Briefing newspersons, Narayanasamy said that LG in a letter sent to him had termed the three nominated members as BJP MLAs. However, the Legislative Assembly has not granted recognition to the three nominated members as those of BJP. Though the three -- V Saminathan, K G Shankar and S Selvaganapathy -- have submitted a request to the previous Speaker V Vaithilingam to recognise them as BJP members, no decision was taken on the matter.
Recently, Shankar passed away and Thanga Vikraman was nominated to the Legislative Assembly as his replacement. He has also not been granted recognition as a BJP member by the Legislative Assembly. Narayanasamy said that for recognizing a nominated member as a party member, she/he will have to sign several papers. But no papers were signed by the three so far.
The CM further said that if a nominated member wanted to join a party, she/he should join within six months of his appointment.
Congress elicits views of allies on the trust vote
The chief minister said that a meeting of the Secular Democratic Alliance (SDA) was held Friday in the Congress party office in which the views of the leaders were elicited. Theie views will be discussed in the meeting with the MLAs of Congress and DMK and the independent on February 21 and the modality to be adopted on the trust vote in the assembly on February 22 would be decided.
To the claim of BJP state president V Saminathan that three more congress MLAs are poised to quit and join the BJP, he said that all the ten Congress members are united. The SDA is ready to take on the “anti-people” alliance headed by the NR Congress, he added.