JOIN USReject disqualification petitions of 11 MLAs: TN CM Edappadi K Palaniswamy tells Speaker
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has written to Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal, asking him to reject petitions seeking disqualification of 11 MLAs, including Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, for voting against the Motion of Confidence moved by him on February 18, 2017.
In a letter written in his capacity as leader of the AIADMK Legislature Party, Palaniswami said a whip was issued only to 122 MLAs who attended the legislature party meeting on February 14, 2017, and elected him as the head, and not to the 11 legislators who were functioning as a separate group then.
The issue of disqualification of 11 MLAs has been hanging like a Damocles Sword over the head of the Palaniswami government for over three years. While six former MLAs filed a petition seeking their disqualification, a case filed by DMK with a similar prayer is also pending before the Supreme Court.
The government might be in trouble if the 11 MLAs are disqualified by the speaker. If the speaker goes by the chief minister’s letter and rejects the petition, the AIADMK government will survive for the remainder of its term without any trouble.
Palaniswami’s letter comes after the speaker issued notices to the MLAs and received their responses in which they are understood to have told the presiding officer that they never received any whip to vote in favour of the government.
The state government had told the Supreme Court in February this year that the Speaker had issued notices to the 11 MLAs seeking their response. The 11 MLAs, including Panneerselvam, had voted against the Palaniswami government in the Tamil Nadu Assembly after the current deputy chief minister’s revolt against the then AIADMK interim general secretary V K Sasikala.
However, a few months later, Palaniswami and Panneerselvam patched up and the latter joined the former’s government as deputy chief minister.
In the three-page letter written by Palaniswami on the AIADMK letterhead, the chief minister said he met the Tamil Nadu governor on February 14 on the basis of the support given in written by 122 MLAs and whip was issued only to these legislators.
“…Apart from the fact that there has been no Whip to the Respondents (read OPS and 10 other MLAs) that was issued, the issue of disqualification does not arise in view of the fact that the Respondents continue to represent the AIADMK party in the Assembly and have at no point of time moved away from the ideology of the party,” Palaniswami said in the letter.