Tamil Nadu trust vote: DMK serves no-confidence notice against Speaker
Chennai: Tamil Nadu Opposition party DMK on Tuesday served a no-confidence notice against Speaker P Dhanapal.
According to reports, DMK wrote to the Tamil Nadu Assembly Secretary for a no-confidence motion against Dhanapal.
Dhanapal had held a trust vote via open ballot on Saturday after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palanisamy sought to prove that his faction in the AIADMK had a majority in the House. Palanisamy won the vote of confidence 122-11, after the Opposition walked out.
Stalin’s counsel Shanmugasundaram on Tuesday alleged in the Madras High Court that the Speaker and Assembly Secretary are attempting to tamper with the records of the Saturday’s proceedings in the House.
Shanmugasundaram urged the First Bench of Acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G. Ramesh and Justice R Mahadevan to urgently hear Stalin's petition. The DMK working president's petition prayed to the court to declare the decision of the Speaker accepting the vote of confidence as illegal, null and void.
Two days after alleging that he was beaten up while he and his MLAs were removed from the Assembly, Stalin on Monday had accused the Speaker of “deliberately harping on his community to malign” the DMK. Dhanapal had accused that DMK MLAs mistreated him because he belonged to Scheduled Caste.
“When we see that the Speaker is deliberately harping on his community to malign us, it is very regrettable. It is a matter of shame, according to us, for Tamil Nadu. Therefore we will move a no confidence motion (against Dhanapal). Signatures of 34 MLAs are enough for that and the (Assembly) rules mandate that it (motion) should be taken up within 15 days. On that basis, we will be soon giving it,” Stalin said.
Defending his demand for a secret voting to determine the number of MLAs supporting Edappadi K Palanisamy, Stalin said the Chief Minister would have lost the trust vote. He also asked the people to join the protest being organised by the DMK on Wednesday to protest violence against party MLAs inside the Assembly.
“This is people's problem and they have to come out and protest. Students, government employees, trade union members and others should come and protest against the unfortunate incidents. What happened on Saturday was murder of democracy,” Mr Stalin said.
During the course of his televised address, the Opposition leader also commented on AIADMK general secretary VK Sasikala slamming on late Jayalalithaa's memorial saying the act was due to frustration that she could not become Chief Minister “even for a single day” despite all her efforts.
