Vijay wins trust vote with support from Congress and Left parties; DMK stages a walk out, rift in AIADMK exposed

As many as 144 MLAs voted in favour of the Motion moved by Vijay with only 22 MLAs of the AIADMK’s Edappadi K Palaniswami faction voting against the govt.

Chennai: Passing the first hurdle comfortably, Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay on Wednesday won the trust vote in the Tamil Nadu Assembly with “generous support” from 25 “rebel” AIADMK MLAs, who voted in favour of his four-day government. 

At the end of the voting, Speaker J C D Prabhakar announced that the motion was supported by 144 MLAs and opposed by 22 AIADMK MLAs owing allegiance to Edappadi K Palaniswami, while by four PMK MLAs and the lone BJP member abstained. 

“Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay has the confidence of this House,” Prabhakar said, before adjourning the House sine die. 

Moments before the motion was put to vote, Leader of Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin led a walkout of the DMK members, who didn’t participate in the voting. He accused the TVK government of indulging in “horse trading” to prove its majority on the floor of the house and said people who voted for “change” are now worried there was any “exchange”, referring to the support from rebel AIADMK MLAs. 

Those who voted in favour of the motion are 105 TVK MLAs (excluding Tiruppattur MLA who was restrained from voting by the court), Congress (5), CPI (M), CPI, IUML, and VCK (two each), AMMK (1), and rebel AIADMK MLAs (25). Only 22 members of the EPS faction voted against the motion. 

The voting by the rebel MLAs came even as Palaniswami told the House that the AIADMK has decided to vote against the motion and anyone voting in favour will face action. He also found fault with Vijay for having met the rebel AIADMK MLAs when the party was facing an internal crisis. 

Despite objection from Palaniswami and his supporters, the Speaker allowed former minister S P Velumani to participate in the debate. 

During the debate on the Motion of Confidence moved by Vijay, MLAs cutting across party lines criticised the government for appointing the Chief Minister’s personal astrologer, Rickey Radhan Pandit, as an Officer of Special Duty (Political). 

In his reply, Vijay promised that the issues pointed by opposition parties will be “rectified”, and within an hour, the appointment of Pandit was revoked. Responding to criticism that the people did not give him majority support, Vijay said he was happy to run a “minority government” where the rights of minorities will be protected. 

“This government will function with the speed of a horse and not indulge in horse trading,” the Chief Minister said, adding that his government will continue to implement welfare measures of the previous DMK regime. 

In his speech, Udhay came down heavily on the government for accepting the support of the rebel AIADMK MLAs and criticised the Chief Minister for resigning as the legislator from Tiruchi (east) without even visiting the constituency to thank people. 

“Instead of governance through Instagram reels, we hope you will do some real governance,” Udhay told the Chief Minister. Later, his father and DMK President M K Stalin also reminded that his government was being supported by his former allies and sought to know whether the rebel AIADMK legislators will get any “return gift” from the Chief Minister.