CHENNAI: The Madras High Court’s verdict on Tuesday upholding the Speaker’s acceptance of the resignations of six AIADMK MLAs and the ruling TVK’s victory in the Madurantakam and Dharapuram bypolls may hasten the exodus of more AIADMK legislators to the ruling party in the coming days.
“The electoral victory in the two constituencies has given confidence to the true MGR and Amma loyalists to join TVK. So, more resignations are likely, and so far 10 AIADMK MLAs are in talks with us,” a highly placed TVK source told TNIE.
The ruling party headed by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay is also looking to consolidate its position in the Assembly by increasing its strength from 109 MLAs to 114 by winning the bye-elections to five more seats.
“Irrespective of when the elections happen for the five constituencies, we are confident of winning all the five. We have the people’s support for our clean governance,” a senior TVK minister told TNIE. He also said that those AIADMK MLAs who resigned and joined TVK would be renominated in their respective constituencies.
The TVK is now eyeing the bye-elections to Tiruchy East, Karur, Viralimalai, Perundurai and Ambasamudram, which could take its tally to 114 if it wins all five constituencies. A new candidate for Tiruchy East would be chosen by the party president C Joseph Vijay, to win the seat that has become vacant following his resignation as he retained Perambur.
With 118 seats required for a simple majority in the 234-member Assembly, the TVK would still fall four seats short of the majority mark even if it wins all five pending bypolls. For the TVK, the next electoral test will be whether it can build on its victories in Madurantakam and Dharapuram and translate them into further gains in the Assembly.
While a sweep of the five constituencies would take its strength closer to the majority mark, another senior minister said that irrespective of their independent strength in the Assembly, they would not let go of their Secular Social Justice Victory Alliance (SSJVA) parties and it would be a coalition government.
“We do not want to let down our allies, who helped us form the government when we were short of a majority. All the allies who supported us to form the government and joined our coalition government will be part of the government, irrespective of our independent numbers,” the senior minister told TNIE.
