Palaniswami meets governor again with a reminder letter

Barely a day after staking his claim to form the government in Tamil Nadu, new AIADMK legislature party leader Edappadi K Palaniswami on Wednesday night met  Governor Vidyasagar Rao with a “reminder letter”, asking to be invited to form the government.

Later, his rival and Chief Minister O Panneerselvam also met the governor.

Raj Bhavan sources said Palaniswami, who met Rao along with senior minsters, including D Jayakumar, reiterated that he had the support of more than 120 MLAs.

Emerging from the meeting, Jayakumar said, “We have the support of 124 MLAs. We are hoping that the governor will call us tomorrow to form the government and uphold democracy."

To a question on the rival Panneerselvam camp, which also claimed that it has the numbers to prove the majority in the Assembly, an annoyed Jayakumar said, “We have 124 MLAs and they have only a few MLAs.”

He said there has been no response from Raj Bhavan after Palaniswami staked his claim to form the next government following his election as the legislature party leader, replacing V K Sasikala after her conviction in a corruption case.

“So we met the governor again reminding him of the letters of support from party MLAs handed over to him”, he added.

A little later Panneerselvam, along with senior party leaders including Rajya Sabha member V Maithreyan, also met the governor.

SC declines Sasikala’s plea
The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to grant any more time to AIADMK general secretary V K Sasikala to surrender and begin serving the four-year jail term awarded to her and two others in a disproportionate assets case against the then Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, DHNS reports from New Delhi.
A bench presided over by Justice P C Ghose refused to entertain a plea made on her behalf by senior advocate K T S Tulsi seeking a week to surrender to enable her to sort out her affairs.