The Madras high court on Wednesday has said that no floor test would be held in Tamil Nadu assembly until petitions challenging disqualification of AIADMK MLAs are disposed off. The 18 legislators support former deputy general secretary, TTV Dinakaran. They say that their disqualification by speaker doesn’t stand legal check as they didn’t join other parties.
The disqualification was a boost to CM E Palaniswami. It reduced the halfway mark in the 234-member assembly to 108 from 117. AIADMK claims the support of 114 MLAs, but if the disqualifications are reversed, the CM doesn’t have the numbers to command majority.
The court set the next date of hearing as 4 October. However, it didn’t stay the disqualifications that have been contested both by the opposition DMK and Dinakaran.
The current political crisis began last month after Palaniswami and deputy CM O Panneerselvam removed Dinakaran and party ex-secretary VK Sasikala from all party posts. Dinakaran hit back, claiming the support of 18 MLAs. These have expressed their lack of confidence in the CM in a letter to the governor.
