Chennai: "The Palaniswami Government got a huge respite on Thursday with the Madras High Court delivering a split verdict on a batch of petitions challenging Assembly Speaker P.Dhanapal's order disqualifying 18 AIADMK legislators loyal to the 'rebel' leader TTV Dhinakaran last September.
"In my opinion, Speaker's decision is not unreasonable”, said Chief Justice Indira Banerjee, while Justice M. Sundar on the Bench disagreed with her and struck down the Speaker's order. “I respectfully submit that I disagree with the opinion of the CJ and hereby set aside the order passed by the Speaker”, said Justice Sundar in his order.
Now the issue would go before a third judge for decision and since the CJ was on this Bench, she has left the task of choosing the 'third judge' to the senior-most judge after her, Justice Huluvadi G. Ramesh. Until the third judge gives his verdict, there will be no floor test in the Assembly and no by-elections to fill up the 18 vacant seats.
The split verdict is a huge relief for the EPS-OPS regime rattled by fears of instability caused by the TTV rebellion on the one side and the consistent badgering from the Opposition front led by the DMK on multiple issues, not to forget the fringe elements challenging the government on almost everything under the sun. For the time being at least, the government's stability is assured and any clever politician should be able to work out ways of consolidation using this court-delivered respite.
To rewind on this case diary, Speaker Dhanapal had passed the disqualification order on September 18 after the 18 MLAs called on the then Governor (in-charge) C. Vidyasagar Rao on August 22 and gave identical letters informing him they were withdrawing support to CM Palaniswami and seeking a change of guard. Another legislator S.T.K. Jakkaiyan too had gone along with the letter to the Governor but the Speaker spared him after he met him on September 17 and gave another letter saying he was pressured to join the TTV gang and was now free of that guilt.
The trip to Raj Bhavan by the TTV brigade happened a day after the rival factions of EPS and OPS merged after ejecting Dhinakaran as AIADMK deputy general secretary and declaring parting of ways with his jailed aunt Sasikala at the peak of intense power struggle that followed the death of Jayalalithaa in December, 2016.
With a galaxy of top lawyers representing all the players in this matter before the HC Bench, the case has been keenly watched and its verdict eagerly awaited in not just Tamil Nadu but also in Delhi as speculation has been rife for long that the BJP is taking deep interest in the health of the EPS Government for the sake of political stability in the state, and more importantly for building up its own party base in the Dravidian turf to be able to face the 2019 Parliament poll and the Assembly elections due in 2021.
In the 234-member assembly, the ruling AIADMK has 116 MLAs excluding the Speaker but including S Karunaas (Mukkulathor Pulipadai), M Thamimun Ansari (Manithaneya Jananayaga Katchi) and U Thaniyarasu (Tamil Nadu Kongu Ilaignar Peravai), who had won on the party's two leaves symbol in the 2016 polls.
While 18 MLAs owing allegiance to Dhinakaran were disqualified, he remains the lone independent member in the House after getting elected from RK Nagar last year. The DMK has 89 members, its allies Congress 8 and the IUML one.
