The Madras High Court was scheduled to give its verdict in the disqualification of 18 AIADMK MLAs for activities against the party. The court had faced a number of petitions against Speaker P Dhanapal’s decision taken in last September which disqualified the MLAs who then withdrew support to the current AIADMK government headed by Chief Minister Edapaddi K Palaniswami and his deputy chief minister, O.Pannerselvam. The disqualified MLAs are now in support of independent MLA Dinakaran, who was earlier ousted from AIADMK.
In a most expected verdict, the court has pronounced that the disqualification persists. As the court supports the Speaker’s decision, bypolls will be held sooner for the 18 vacant seats. In case it had dismissed the disqualification order, the AIADMK government would have been in a situation to prove its majority in a floor test in the House. Currently, ruling party is technically in the minority because it has been obvious that the 18 MLAs will vote against EPS and end the government.
With 18 vacant seats, the House is now reduced to 216 members. The ruling AIADMK has 116 MLAs, and the Opposition owns 98 seats, with 89 DMK MLAs, eight Congress and one from IUML. TTV Dinakaran recently entered the House by winning RK Nagar bypolls.
