NEW DELHI: It was no more than a chance encounter that Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker and AIADMK leader M Thambidurai managed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.
Thambidurai was present when Modi dropped in – as is customary for the Prime Minister upon the successful completion of the first half of the Budget session – on Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan in her chambers in Parliament. Senior members of the Union Cabinet, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar too were present. So there was no question of an exclusive meeting between the PM and Thambidurai.
According to sources, no tangible dialogue or even a specific exchange of pleasantries took place between the PM and the Deputy Speaker, as was being claimed by media houses. After thanking the Speaker, Modi left her chambers without much of a conversation.
The AIADMK leader, who is backing V K Sasikala for the chief minister’s post in the current stalemate in Tamil Nadu, himself admitted he had no conversation with the Prime Minister. Home Minister Rajnath Singh later told ANI that the political crisis in Tamil Nadu “is an internal matter of the AIADMK” and “the Centre has no role to play” in it.
Amid late-evening speculation that Tamil Nadu Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao sent a report to the President after granting an audience to the two opposing sides – ‘acting’ Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and AIADMK general secretary V K Sasikala – Rashtrapati Bhavan issued a denial.
Sources said the President of India has little role in the matter as of now. “It’s a call that the Governor of Tamil Nadu has to take” in keeping with the “legal constitutional position,” they said.
Even if the Governor deems it fit to send a report to the Centre, the Union Home Minister is technically the likely recipient of the report.
A top Cabinet minister did not deny that the Governor “is taking legal opinion on the relevant constitutional provisions” since “Sasikala’s claim of majority support from AIADMK MLAs is being questioned by Panneerselvam on certain specific grounds”, but he added that “the opinion would be coming from the Governor’s own team” of constitutional experts, not from Central law officers.
Meanwhile, in Parliament on Thursday, most of the AIADMK MPs were found raising their voices in Sasikala’s favour and against the delay by the Governor in calling her to form a government.
A Navanaeethakrishnan, the AIADMK’s floor leader in the Rajya Sabha, claimed that “Chinnamma (Sasikala)” has the support of all legislators in Tamil Nadu and all Parliamentarians, not Panneerselvam. “Since Chinnamma has the support of all MLAs, the Governor should not delay the swearing-in ceremony. The budget has to be cleared, there’s a drought in the State, and there are other pressing issues that require attention,” Navaneethakrishnan said during an interaction at Parliament House. He said the delay by the Governor in appointing Sasikala as chief minister was “unconstitutional” and “impermissible under law”.
“On Sunday, when AIADMK leaders met and chose Sasikala to lead the party and the State, it was Mr Panneerselvam who fell at her feet. He touched her feet in front of everyone. And now he says he was forced to resign?” he asked. During zero hour discussions in the Rajya Sabha, Navaneethakrishnan mentioned the absence of Governor Vidyasagar Rao from the State. “The AIADMK MPs trooped into the well of the House in order to save democracy. The swearing-in ceremony should be conducted today itself,” he said.
Another MP alleged that Panneerselvam was acting as a “puppet” of the DMK, which has said it will support him. The MP, however, did not blame the Union government for Panneerselvam’s “rebellion”. He said even the late M G Ramachandran never antagonised the Centre. “The original plan was to parade the MLAs before the President of India, but when media reports came in that the Governor would be in Chennai, the plan was dropped. Even Raj Bhavan had no information about the arrival of the Governor. We got to know of it from the media,” the MP said.