AIADMK chief whip calls for disqualification of 19 MLAs, Speaker Dhanapal sends notice to rebels

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Chennai: Tamil Nadu Speaker P Dhanapal on Friday issued a notice to 19 AIADMK MLAs seeking explanation on a plea for their disqualification within a week, according to PTI sources. 

The 19 MLAs, currently lodged at a resort at Puducherry,  are part of the faction led by the now jailed AIADMK General Secretary VK Sasikala and her nephew TTV Dhinakaran.

Earlier today, the chief whip of the ruling AIADMK urged Speaker Dhanapal to disqualify the 19 MLAs who have rebelled against Chief Minister K Palaniswami.

The 19 legislators had submitted a memorandum to Tamil Nadu Governor C Vidyasagar Rao withdrawing their support to the Chief Minister, reportedly upset over the coming together of the two major factions of the AIADMK led by Palaniswamy and ex-CM O Panneerselvam.

"We will go to court against this recommendation of the whip to Speaker. We only want the change of Chief Minister," said MLA Thanga Tamil Selvan, a supporter of Dhinakaran.

"This is an attempt to threaten our supporters who are in the government as if they join us then the government will fall," Thanga Tamil Selvam added further. "Our intention is not to topple this Government, our only demand is to change the Chief Minister," he said. 

Speaking to the media here, Chief Whip S. Rajendran said that by withdrawing support to the Chief Minister, the dissenting MLAs had attracted the provision of the anti-defection law.

The Dhinakaran faction, whose MLAs are now holed up in Puducherry, reacted sharply. A spokesman for the group said,"this was aimed at preventing more legislators from joining them".

The move comes as the opposition parties have been demanding the Chief Minister to prove his majority in the assembly.

The AIADMK had 134 members in the Assembly (excluding the Speaker) and this has fallen to 115 without the support of the Dhinakaran faction.

The Tamil Nadu Assembly has 234 seats. One seat is vacant due to the death of AIADMK leader J. Jayalalithaa.

Of the 233 members, the DMK has 89 members, the Congress 8 and the IUML 1. Speaker P. Dhanapal has only a casting vote in a tie. The DMK, Congress and IUML are in an alliance.