It is time for the Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao to act. He must allow the assembly to first elect what the majority will be- , which group is the biggest. Then, the leader of that group, having won the vote of confidence of MLAs, should be made Chief Minister.
To facilitate this, he said, it is the acting Chief Minister Panneerselvam, must call the session.
Experts say it is incumbent upon the Governor to order a gathering urgently of all 234 Tamil Nadu legislators. Then, a floor test must follow to determine who has the majority.
With the Supreme Court sentencing Ms Sasikala to jail for four years, the verdict also barring her from running for election for 10 years, her party has named minister Edapadi K Palanisamy as its new leader. He says he will now meet with the Governor to ask for the right to take a trust vote.
O Panneerselvam, 67, announced that unlike on those occasions, he would not conform to party orders to enable the promotion of Sasikala, who has never contested an election, as Chief Minister. This- he said, was urged by “the spirit of Amma Jayalalithaa” who appeared before him. Today, he was expelled from the AIADMK, even as he wrote to the party to urge that it stay together.
Sasikala, backed by about all but 10 of her party’s state legislators, had asked the Governor to let her take a trust vote. Panneerselvam, who had resigned before his mutiny, put in a formal request for the same.
The Governor sought counsel from experts, as both sides waited. It has been six days since the competing claims were filed – enough of a window for Panneerselvam to keep chipping away at his rival’s bloc of 125 legislators, assimilated in a luxury resort named Golden Bay for several nights to prevent defection.
U.Srinivas
Editor
