O Panneerselvam camp, DMK seek secret ballot in floor test

While the AIADMK has a total strength of 134 legislators excluding late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa (vacant) and Speaker P Dhanapal, the rebel Panneerselvam faction has a total strength of 11 MLAs with the Mylapore MLA and former DGP R Natraj shifting allegiance and expressing his support for the OPS camp on Friday. But for these 11 legislators, all the 123 AIADMK MLAs are likely to vote for the EPS government. 

AIADMK state Assembly whip Rajendran has called on all party MLAs to be present to participate in the floor test. They have been asked to support Chief Minister Edappadi K Palanisamy’s confidence motion. Chief Minister Palanisamy, earlier during the day, went to the Golden Bay resort in Koovathur and interacted with MLAs supporting him. 

The two-hour long meeting discussed strategies to be followed in the floor test on Saturday. The MLAs are expected to leave by 9 am by cars to attend the Assembly session schedule at 11 am. Meanwhile, members from the O Panneerselvam group met Speaker P Dhanapal on Friday regarding the conduct of the confidence motion. 

The team which included K Pandiarajan, S Semmalai and Shanmuganthan (all MLAs) and senior leader C Ponnaiyan, however, did not reveal details of their meeting to the media. Later, the OPS camp had appealed that the Speaker should conduct a secret ballot to ensure that legislators came out and voted without fear.  Their appeal found support from unexpected quarters when, later that evening, Stalin too sought a secret ballot in the confidence motion. 

While DMK has a strength of 89, Congress has eight and IUML has a lone legislator in the Assembly. The House has a total strength of 234 members. While inviting Edappadi K Palanisamy to form the government on Thursday, Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao had asked him to seek the vote of confidence in the next 15 days. However, later it was announced that the vote of confidence would be held at 11 am on Saturday.