Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami has informed the Assembly Speaker that the Chief Government Whip had not issued any whip to 11 AIADMK MLAs, including O. Panneerselvam, to support him during the Motion of Confidence moved by him in the House on February 18, 2017. A whip was only issued to the 122 MLAs, who had given letters of support electing him as Leader of the AIADMK legislature party, he said.

Hence, there was no necessity to disqualify Mr. Panneerselvam, now Deputy Chief Minister and AIADMK coordinator, under the anti-defection law.

“Even though there was no direction issued by the Chief Government Whip to the respondents, no action was initiated by the AIADMK party contemporaneously to disqualify the respondents in the fond hope that respondents would express their solidarity with the party and thus, even at that stage, their action of voting against the confidence motion was condoned,” Mr. Palaniswami contended.

The Chief Minister’s stand came in the form of a reply to the Speaker in an affidavit dated June 1 seeking to “dismiss the pleas of six former [AIADMK] MLAs”, who sought disqualification of Mr. Panneerselvam and 10 others, who voted against the Motion of Confidence.

The Speaker had on June 10 informed the six petitioners of the same and sought their response within seven days.

Mr. Palaniswami argued he had met the Governor only on the basis of the written support of 122 MLAs and was invited to form the government and prove his majority.

“Thereafter, the Chief Government Whip had issued individual communications in the form of a whip to each of the 122 MLAs who had elected me as the Legislative Leader to vote for the Resolution in the Assembly on February 18, 2017. I then proved the majority on the floor of the House on the support of these MLAs,” Mr. Palaniswami stated.

He contended that the issue of disqualifying Mr. Panneerselvam and others did not arise as the 11 MLAs continue to represent the AIADMK in the Assembly.

Besides, the Election Commission has recognised that the true AIADMK party was the one that was jointly led by Mr. Paneerselvam and him. Stating that the petitioners were not in the AIADMK, he said their petitions deserved to be dismissed.

In his preliminary reply to the Speaker “received on March 16 this year”, Mr. Panneerselvam too said he had not received any whip. Also he was not among the MLAs who were invited to the meeting of AIADMK legislators on February 14 and therefore did not participate in it.

He said the petitions were based on the “unsubstantiated claim that there was a whip/direction issued to the respondents by the Chief Government Whip” on February 17, 2017.