Endgame: Tamil Nadu Speaker P Dhanapal sacks 18 T T V Dinakaran MLAs

Rebel AIADMK leader TTV Dinakaran. (File)

Signalling the beginning of a decisive phase in the political tussle for power in Tamil Nadu, the state’s Speaker P Dhanapal Monday disqualified the 18 AIADMK MLAs supporting T T V Dinakaran, the nephew of jailed party leader V K Sasikala. In response, leaders in the Dinakaran faction said they would approach the court against the decision, which has come as a big boost for the united ruling group led by Chief Minister E Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam. The rebel faction also announced that it would conduct a public rally in Trichy Tuesday to prove their strength.

According to sources from both sides of the AIADMK, the immediate impact of the Speaker’s decision would be a floor test, possibly on Thursday. A senior DMK leader, meanwhile, indicated that the main Opposition party would discuss the strategy of getting all of its MLAs to resign in protest against the Speaker’s move.

The disqualification effectively reduces the state Assembly to 216 seats with 116 AIADMK MLAs, including the Speaker. It also brings the total number of AIADMK seats lying vacant to 19, following the death of J Jayalalithaa in December last year. The Opposition has a strength of 98, including 89 MLAs of DMK, eight of Congress and one of the IUML.

The 18 disqualified MLAs had earlier failed to respond to summons from the Speaker after 19 MLAs met Governor C Vidyasagar Rao and submitted separate letters withdrawing support to the Palaniswami government earlier this month. One MLA from that group, S T K Jakkaiyan, later withdrew his letter and announced his support for the ruling group.

Also read | Speaker Dhanapal, once disqualified as MLA amid faction feud in AIADMK

The Speaker’s move comes a day after Dinakaran accused Palaniswami of having “direct links” to corruption-tainted mining baron Sekhar Reddy. Last week, the united ruling group had convened a general council meeting of the party and sacked Sasikala and Dinakaran from top posts.

Sources close to the government said the disqualification would help the united group prove its majority in a floor test with the half-way mark now down to 108. “The Speaker’s decision, under Schedule 10 of the Constitution, has disqualified the 18 MLAs. The Assembly secretary has reported this to the Election Commission as well,” said sources.

Leaders from the Dinakaran faction said they would move court to challenge the Speaker’s decision, which they said was “an attempt to manipulate the minority status into a majority”.

“We will organise a massive rally in Trichy. We are mobilising a minimum of 30,000 party workers from Trichy, Thanjavur and Tiruvarur districts for the rally. It is a matter of prestige for us after Sasikala and Dinakaran were expelled from their party posts,” said a senior leader with the faction.

The faction plans to challenge the Speaker’s decision on many grounds, including lack of opportunities for the disqualified MLAs to present their case and other procedural lapses.

“Our 18 MLAs have been disqualified on the allegation that they were planning to commit a violation in case of a floor test. If it was such a heinous crime, Panneerselvam and his 10 MLAs should be disqualified first as they had already committed this crime during the floor test in February. There was a complaint filed at that time by MLA P Vetrivel to the Speaker seeking action against Panneerselvam. What happened to that?” said another rebel leader.

The DMK’s deputy floor leader S Duraimurugan described the Speaker’s decision as “nothing but a murder of democracy”. “The MLAs were disqualified for merely expressing their differences outside the Assembly. I have lost respect for the Speaker,” he said.

The main Opposition party has also called for an “urgent meeting” of its MLAs in Chennai on Tuesday evening. “If the government can abuse its power to disqualify their own party MLAs, they can do the same to our MLAs, too. Why shouldn’t we resign en-masse before facing such blatant attacks on our democratic rights?” said a senior leader.

Monday’s drama in Chennai also echoed in the private resort in Karnataka’s Coorg, where MLAs of the Dinakaran faction are holed up, with the arrival of a police team from Chennai.

According to a senior police officer, the team has been tasked with taking into custody two MLAs and key figures in the Dinakaran camp, Senthil Balaji and P Palaniappan, as part of investigations into two criminal complaints filed against them months ago.