Objecting to Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao’s reported remarks that the current political crisis was an internal affair of the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Leader of the Opposition M.K. Stalin on Wednesday accused the Governor of “playing politics” instead of asking Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami to prove his majority in the Assembly.
“The Governor had ordered a trust vote when former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam with the support of 10 MLAs demanded it. Did he not realise then that it was an ‘inner party affair’ of a political party,” Mr. Stalin told reporters.
“It is unbecoming of a Governor to have held together the hands of leaders of the two factions of the AIADMK.
BJP’s role
The BJP has a clear role. It looks like fish trading on a beach,” he said. “The DMK is considering legal opinion whether it should use its ball,” he said.
Mr. Stalin charged that the AIADMK government was being run as per the whims of the BJP government. “You must have seen the efforts taken by BJP to bring together the two factions,” he said. In a statement, PMK founder S. Ramadoss described as “irresponsible act” the reported argument of the Governor that the withdrawal of support to the Chief Minister by 19 AIADMK MLAs was an internal affair of the ruling party.
“It remains a mystery why the Governor is hesitating to order a confidence vote. In a similar situation in Karnataka, the then Governor Bharadwaj directed the Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa to prove his majority after 11 BJP MLAs withdrew their support,” he added.
VCK leader Thirumavalavan, who had met the Governor seeking a floor test, said, “We met him for 10 minutes and he made it clear that he would not intervene. When we told him that 19 MLAs had withdrawn support to the government, all he would say was that he would act according to law,” he said. “When we said that the government has lost majority, the Governor disagreed,” he added.
Support for Governor
However, State BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan, who did not foresee the prospects of a general election being held in Tamil Nadu now, said the Governor’s handling of the political situation has been good. Expecting him to act the way the Opposition wanted was unfair.
CPI State secretary R. Mutharasan hinted that the opposition will consider public agitations if there are no positive outcomes from their scheduled meeting with the President of India on Thursday.
“Even if the 19 MLAs have not left their party, the fact that they submitted letters withdrawing support to the CM means that this government has lost its majority. The question is not whether they are still AIADMK members,” CPI (M) leader G. Ramakrishnan said.