CHENNAI: T T V Dhinakaran, accompanied by three MLAs and six MPs, met governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao at Raj Bhavan on Thursday and reiterated his demand for a directive to chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami to prove his majority on the floor of the Assembly. He said the September 4 meeting of MLAs convened by Palaniswami proved that he has indeed lost majority support in the House.
While Dhinakaran and others were waiting at Raj Bhavan to meet the governor, S T K Jakkaiyan, the AIADMK MLA from Cumbum constituency, who has been supporting Dhinakaran so far, met Speaker P Dhanapal and announced that now he would be supporting Palaniswami with a view to protect the present government.
Jakkaiyan was one among the 19 MLAs who had given individual letters to the governor on August 22 informing that they had withdrawn support to Palaniswami. The three MLAs – V T Kalaiselvan, E A Rathinasabapathi and actor S Karunas who accompanied Dhinakaran submitted individual letters informing the governor that they too were doing so, in addition to those who had given letters already. Apart from these three MLAs, six MPs -- A Navaneethakrishnan, M Udhyakumar, N Gokula Krishnan, B Senguttuvan, Vigila Satyanand and AP Nagarajan -- also met the governor.
So the number of MLAs who support Dhinakaran which rose to 22 today, came down to 21 with the shifting of loyalties by Jakkaiyan.
Talking to mediapersons after meeting the governor, Dhinakaran said, “We have urged the governor not to delay the decision on the present crisis. The governor also assured that he would take a decision soon.”
Downplaying Jakkaiyan’s decision to jump to the Palaniswami faction, Dhinakaran said, “If one MLA leaves, two MLAs from that side will come to our side. Wait and see, our sleeper cell MLAs will rise at an appropriate time.”
On August 22, 19 MLAs met the governor and submitted individual letters informing him that they had withdrawn support to Palaniswami since corruption was rampant in the government headed by him. They also wanted to change the chief minister but they have clarified that they did not want to bring down the government but only wish to change the chief minister.
Following this, S Rajendran, whip of the AIADMK (Amma) faction in the State Assembly, recommended to Speaker P Dhanapal that action should be taken against the 21 MLAs. The speaker sent notices to these MLAs and they submitted their replies. However, the speaker, not satisfied with their replies, sent a second notice asking them to appear before him on September 5. But the MLAs supporting Dhinakaran had sought 15 days time to reply to the second notice.
In another development, on August 30, the governor, when opposition leaders met him recently, clarified that “What is going on now is an intra-party affair of the AIADMK. So, the ball has not come into my court till now.” However, the opposition leaders said, “The ball is very much in the court of the governor and he has to kick it.” Later, the MLAs supporting Dhinakaran said they would take steps to meet the president if the governor fails to meet them.
Just as leaders in the Dhinakaran faction continue with their assertion that they had ‘sleeper cells’ in the faction headed by Edappadi K Palaniswami and they would appear when required, Palaniswami was forced to prove his strength. As a show of strength, 109 MLAs attended the meeting convened by Palaniswami. Of the 50 district secretaries, 46 attended the meeting. The EPS faction also claimed that nine MLAs who are now supporting Dhinakaran had also extended their support to Palaniswami over telephone.