CM Vijay Bats For Equality After Winning Trust Vote

Chennai: Winning the vote of confidence in the Tamil Nadu Assembly with the support of 144 of the 171 members present in the House on Wednesday, Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay said that his was not a minority government but a regime that would uphold the security of minorities in the State besides working for the welfare of all sections of people like women, children, elders, youth, government employees, teachers and the working class.

With the DMK members walking out of the House, the motion was passed when Speaker J C D Prabhakar took it up for discussion and voting since a section of AIADMK members supported it defying the party diktat – 28 district secretaries were stripped of their party posts later in the day by general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami – and only 22 members voted against the government while five others abstained.

Thanking those who voted for the government, Vijay said his regime would transcend beyond caste and religious differences as it was an outcome of the common people’s aspiration something that happened on the lines of political changes in 1967 (when the DMK came to power first) and 1977 (when MGR won the elections).

In three years of its inception, the Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam had won the confidence of the people to the extent that it managed to poll 34.92 percent of the votes in its favour with 1,72,26,208 persons supporting it and sending it to the Assembly as he single largest party, he said.

So the new government, formed not with an intention of obtaining power and position but as a thanksgiving to those who reposed confidence in the party, would not hurt anyone for political reasons or intimidate anyone by misusing its power, he said.

With hatred towards none, the government would embrace all with people’s welfare as its priority and abhor discrimination of any kind, he said and expressed gratitude to all the leaders who supported the party in the Assembly.

While Palaniswamy maintained that the AIADMK members who defied the party whip and voted in favour of the TVK would attract the provisions of the anti-defection law, some of the rebels who supported Vijay claimed that the whip had not been appointed formally by the party.

Leader of the PMK in the Assembly, Sowmiya Anbumani, said her party abstained from voting because it wanted a government without any blemish to rule the State and stressed on the introduction of total prohibition.

Manithaneya Makkal Katchi leader M H Jawahirullah urged the new government to not support the PM Shri scheme of the Union Government and to provide opportunities for Muslims in the ruling party, pointing out that there is no representation for the community in the Cabinet now.

The MLA who was expelled from the AMMK for supporting the TVK, pledged his support for Vijay for the next five years and S P Velumani, the senior AIADMK leader who voted in favour of the new government and is the leader of the rebel faction, said their politics was only against the DMK and supported the measures launched by Vijay.