CHENNAI: The 19 MLAs supporting T T V Dhinakaran, in their individual letters to Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao on Tuesday, alleged there was rampant corruption in the Edappadi K Palaniswami-led government and sought his intervention. However, talking to mediapersons after the meeting, the MLAs said they had only sought a change of Chief Minister.
“Palaniswami as Chief Minister has forfeited the confidence of the people and the interests of Tamil Nadu and the people of the State,” the MLAs said, adding that they were withdrawing their support after losing confidence in him.
But, on a cautious note, they said they had not given up their membership of AIADMK and were only doing their duty as a conscious citizen to expose the abuse and misuse of the constitutional provision.
In the representations, they said they had supported Palaniswami in the floor test in the State Assembly in February.
Slowly, however, they were disillusioned with the functioning of the government he headed, as there have been abuse of power, favouritism, misuse of government machinery and widespread corruption. For the past four months, allegations of corruption against him had been levelled from various sectors.
“The Chief Minister is corrupt and encouraging corruption at several levels, which also have caused severe damage to the name of our party,” they alleged.
“The present situation has arisen that the governance of the State cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution,” they said and recalled how O Panneerselvam himself had alleged corruption in the present government. Within a fortnight, he was inducted as Deputy Chief Minister. “This reveals Palaniswami’s favouritism, abuse of power and misuse of government machinery to cover up the corrupt practice,” they added.
The Chief Minister must be impartial and must have a sense of fair play and should command respect from all corners of the State. “The dream and vision of our party supremo J Jayalalithaa towards the upliftment of the people of Tamil Nadu is totally ignored by Palaniswami,” the MLAs added.