Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami yesterday comfortably won the vote of confidence in the state assembly, with the proceedings marred by pandemonium that saw the opposition DMK evicted by the speaker, and the Congress too walked out.
Palaniswami, who was sworn in on Thursday as Chief Minister, won with 122 votes in favour and 11 votes against.
The 11 opposing votes were cast by the rival AIADMK camp led by former chief minister O Panneerselvam.
Palaniswami belongs to the AIADMK faction led by party general secretary V K Sasikala.
The end came tamely after DMK’s 88 members, who were present were ordered to be evicted by Speaker P Dhanapal after they indulged in a ruckus.
After that Congress legislators walked out in protest, dashing Panneerselvam’s hopes.
The AIADMK camp led by Sasikala was obviously happy and distributed sweets.
“The traitors were defeated,” A Navaneethakrishnan, part of Sasikala camp told reporters here.
After winning the confidence vote, a happy Palaniswami went to the memorial of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Marina beach and paid homage to her.
Speaking to reporters he said: “The people of Tamil Nadu are happy.”
He said party Sasikala’s vow here couple of days back has come true.
Panneerselvam alleged that the floor test was conducted after the eviction of Opposition members and went against democratic norms. “Dharma has been momentarily eclipsed but it shall win finally,” he said.
The chaos of the assembly proceedings spilt over to Marina beach where DMK party chief M K Stalin had moved along with his party legislators to protest against the manner in which the DMK legislators were evicted from the state assembly.
Stalin, along with party MLAs, sat on protest near the Mahatma Gandhi statue on the Marina beach.
Police later took the DMK MLAs into custody.
DMK supporters blocked the police vehicles at the venue.
Earlier, Stalin met Tamil Nadu Governor C Vidyasagar Rao and lodged a complaint against the happenings in the assembly.
Speaking to reporters after he and his party legislators were evicted from the assembly, Stalin said the party had demanded secret ballot to decide on the motion of confidence moved by Chief Minister Palaniswami.
The DMK leader said he sat in protest inside the assembly to press his demand.
Stalin alleged he was forcibly evicted by the marshals and suffered injuries.
Ahead of the vote, Palaniswami’s AIADMK faction suffered two jolts when Arun Kumar, a legislator from Coimbatore North, jumped ship, and AIADMK legislator representing Mylapore constituency and former Director General of Police (DGP) R Nataraj said he would vote against Palaniswami.
Cine stars slam drama
Tamil actors such as Kamal Haasan, Siddharth and Arvind Swami among others have reacted strongly over Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami’s winning the confidence vote in the state assembly yesterday.
Palaniswami, who was sworn in on Thursday as Chief Minister, won by 122 voice votes yesterday.
Commenting on the concept of confidence votes, Roja actor Arvind Swami tweeted: “None will accept a vote of confidence if the MLAs don’t represent the people’s views. For that they have to meet people, not party in a resort.”
Swami also demanded re-election.
“In my opinion, the only solution that is acceptable under the circumstances is a re-election. This is not the people’s mandate,” he wrote.
Siddharth, without mincing his words, reacted very strongly.
“Give Sasikala a laptop in jail. Save transport cost (our money) for Edappadi K Palaniswami and his gang for four years. Time to put more salt in our food,” he tweeted.
Actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan slyly described the current political climate as a mockery of democracy.
“There you go. Seems like we have another CM. Jai de-mockcrazy,” Haasan wrote.
Actor Suriya, in a tweet shared in Tamil, said people are the real fools now.
Actress Radikaa Sarath Kumar tweeted: “Disgrace. Governor should act.”
AIADMK party leader Edappadi Palanisamy pays his respects at the memorial for former state chief minister J Jayalalithaa after being sworn in as Tamil Nadu chief minister.
