A day after AIADMK’s Sasikala faction leader and her nephew TTV Dinakaran raised serious charges against Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami alleging direct links of him and his family with mining baron Sekhar Reddy, Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal on Monday disqualified 18 AIADMK MLAs supporting Dinakaran.

While the immediate impact of the disqualification of MLAs is likely to be a hurried floor test to be held on Thursday, top sources in Dinakaran faction said they are approaching the court challenging the decision that they claim is an attempt to “manipulate the minority status into a majority.”

Disqualification of 18 MLAs

While the government needed 117 MLAs in the 234 member house to retain the majority, CM Palaniswami has the support of only 113 MLAs, excluding the speaker and the seat of late J Jayalalithaa. While MLAs having no-confidence in the incumbent ministry are 119, including 89 MLAs of DMK, eight of Congress, one IUML MLA and 21 MLAs of AIADMK’s Dinakaran faction, the ruling faction hopes that the minimum majority number will come down to 107 with the disqualification of 18 MLAs, who are among the 21 supporting Dinakaran camp. A senior leader in CM Palaniswami camp said a floor test now will save the government.

However, the latest disqualification proceedings and the decision today is likely to take the state’s political crisis into a complex scenario as Dinakaran camp is raising multiple arguments to challenge the speaker’s decision including lack of opportunities for disqualified MLAs to present their case and other procedural lapses in the process of disqualification. They also argue that a similar action against 11 MLAs, including deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, who had committed the same violation during the floor test earlier this year.

“Our 18 MLAs disqualified for an alleged ‘crime’ that they were going to do in the next floor test. If it was such a heinous crime, the deputy CM Panneerselvam and his 10 MLAs should be disqualified first as they have already committed a similar crime in the floor test held in February 2017,” said a top Dinakaran leader.

Dinakaran, talking to the media, said he will approach the court for his MLAs to use their right to take part in the floor test. The Speaker’s decision, under Schedule 10 of the constitution, disqualified all 18 MLAs and they have lost their MLA posts.

MLAs are

S Thangatamilselvan (Andipatti), R Murugan (Harur), S Mariappan Kennedy (Manamadurai), K Kadirkamu (Periyakulam), Jayanthi Padmanabhan (Gudiyattam), P Palaniappan (Pappireddypatti), V Senthil Balaji (Aravakurichi), S Muthiah (Paramakudi), P Vetrivel (Perambur), N G Pathiban (Sholingur), M Kodandapani (Tiruporur), T A Elumalai (Poonamallee), M Rengasamy (Thanjavur), R Thangadurai (Nilakottai), R Balasubramani (Ambur), S G Subramanian (Sattur), R Sundaraj (Ottapidaram) and Uma Maheswari (Vilathikulam).