DMK moves Madras HC seeking action against Panneerselvam, 10 OPS-camp MLAs for voting against EPS govt in February

Chennai: The DMK on Monday moved the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the Tamil Nadu Assembly speaker to disqualify deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam and 10 other AIADMK MLAs under the anti-defection law for voting against Chief Minister K Palaniswamy’s trust vote in February. In a petition, DMK whip R Sakkrapani submitted that a petition was given to Speaker P Dhanapal by six AIADMK MLAs (now loyal to sidelined leader TTV Dhinakaran) on 20 March seeking disqualification of the 11 party legislators from the assembly membership. [caption id=“attachment_4061807” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of O Panneerselvam and E Palaniswamy. PTI[/caption] However, the speaker had not even issued notice to the 11 MLAs, he claimed, alleging that the “inaction of the speaker against the 11 MLAs is deliberate and malafide.” The six MLAs had sought action in accordance with provisions of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution and The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly (disqualification on ground of Defection) Rules 1986 for defying the party whip issued by the chief government whip S Rajendran, Sakkrapani submitted. Their act of voting against party’s whip was not condoned within 15 days, the petitioner said, contending that despite the lapse of more than six months even notices had not been issued showing complete “malafide and partisan” behaviour of the speaker. Following the ‘inaction’ of the speaker, Panneerselvam was made deputy chief minister and one of his supporters K Pandirajan minister. “This is a clear act of corruption and quid pro quo for supporting a minority government,” Sakkrapani alleged. He sought a direction to the speaker to disqualify the 11 MLAs. The petition is likely to come up for hearing on 27 September. The court is already hearing a petition by the DMK seeking a floor test for the Palaniswamy government in the wake of 18 MLAs loyal to Dhinakaran withdrawing their support to the chief minister on 22 August.