Chennai:Cracking the whip, Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal today disqualified 18 AIADMK MLAs owing allegiance to “removed” party leader TTV Dhinakaran.
The action against the 18 MLAs, who had revolted against Chief Minister K Palaniswami last month, was taken under anti-defection and disqualification rules of 1986 formed in accordance with the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, said a statement from Assembly Secretary K Bhoopathy.
The MLAs who have been disqualified with effect from today are Thangatamilselvan, R Murugan, Mariappan Kennedy, K Kathirkamu, C Jayanthi Padmanabhan, P Palaniappan, V Senthil Balaji, S Muthiah, P Vetrivel, NG Parthiban, M Kothandapani, TA Elumalai, M Rengasamy, R Thangadurai, R Balasubramani, SG Subramanian, R Sundarraj and K Uma Maheswari.
The said MLAs, besides another, had on August 22 met the Tamil Nadu Governor Ch Vidyasagar and conveyed that they had lost confidence in Palaniswami, who is facing a challenge from Dhinakaran.
One of the dissident MLAs, SKT Jakkaiyan, had later switched camps to support Palaniswami.
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These MLAs had since been demanding the removal of Chief Minister.
The August 22 meeting had come a day after the formal merger of the two factions led by Palaniswami and then rebel leader and now Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam.
Earlier, Chief Government Whip S Rajendran had urged the Speaker to disqualify the said MLAs for “anti-party activities” following their revolt against the Chief Minister.
Though the Speaker had issued notices to all the dissident MLAs seeking their individual presence, they had, however, not turned up.
A resolution adopted at a meeting chaired by Palaniswami on August 28 had said Dhinakaran was “removed” from the post of Deputy General Secretary.
Opposition parties have since been insisting the Governor direct a floor test for the Palaniswami government for proving its majority in the Assembly.
Also Read : TT VDhinakaran alleges Palaniswami faction ‘intimidating’ MLAs of his camp
In the 234-member House, AIADMK has a strength of 134 MLAs.
The RK Nagar seat fell vacant last year following the death of then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
Opposition has a strength of 98 including DMK’s 89.
Congress 8 and IUML one.
—PTI