Chennai: The four-day-old TVK government in Tamil Nadu crossed a major hurdle on Wednesday, May 13, comfortably winning the trust vote with the support of 25 rebel AIADMK MLAs amid DMK’s walkout and Opposition allegations of horse-trading that were rejected by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay.
In its confidence-boosting win, TVK romped home by a 144:22 margin, with all the 22 naysayers being the AIADMK MLAs owing allegiance to party chief Edappadi K Palaniswami. The 25 other party MLAs, from the C Ve Shanmugam-SP Velumamni camp, voted in favour of the government, as announced by them earlier.
Replying to discussions over the resolution moved by him seeking vote of confidence, Vijay said his government will always be secular and would continue to implement the welfare schemes launched by previous regimes.
While the main opposition DMK, with 59 MLAs in the 234-member House staged a walkout slamming the government, PMK with 4 MLAs and the lone member of the BJP abstained. The Vijay-led TVK government won the trust vote also due to the support from the Congress, VCK, Left, IUML and MLA S Kamaraj, who was expelled from AMMK for supporting TVK.
Velumani-Shanmugam faction declares support for TVK
In an embarrassment, the split in the AIADMK came into the open during the trust vote proceedings as the faction led by party leaders Velumani-Shanmugam voted in favour of the government.
Though minutes before Velumani announced support Palaniswami had declared in the House that his party MLAs must vote against the government. The Velumani-Shanmugam led group defied the diktat and sided with the TVK regime. Noisy scenes were witnessed as Palaniswami’s faction opposed Velumani-Shanmugam group’s announcement of support to the government.
In the 234-member House, 118 is the simple majority mark and at the time of voting TVK –which won 108 seats– had a strength of 105 as one party MLA was barred from voting by court; Vijay resigned from Tiruchi-East and Speaker JCD Prabhakar cannot vote in the absence of a “tie” situation.
No floor test for next six months
Amidst questions of its stability in the wake of a lack of a majority, the win gives the maiden TVK government the much-needed confidence to settle down and get on with delivery of governance, even as the ministers, including CM Vijay, are yet to be allotted portfolios. For the next six months, another floor test may not be held.
As soon as the House convened at 9.30 am, CM Vijay, attired in a black blazer, moved the vote of confidence resolution, and the legislators belonging to all parties spoke on the motion. The “count and assess” method of division-wise voting involving calling out the names of MLAs one by one and ascertaining their stand was taken up.
Speaker JCD Prabhakar, after conducting the voting exercise, declared that the resolution moved by the chief minister seeking vote of confidence of the Assembly has won, and as many as 144 MLAs voted with the government; 22 MLAs opposed and five took a neutral stand.
Majority of people did not vote for TVK: Udhayanidhi Stalin
Speaking on trust vote, Leader of Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin said “a majority of people did not vote for TVK.” Only 1.72 crore people voted for the Vijay-led party and the remaining 3.21 crore people “voted against your party.” Approximately 4.93 crore is the total number of people who voted in the April 23 polls.
The DMK leader claimed that about 65 per cent of the people rejected the TVK and the confidence on the government is reducing gradually to also those who had voted for the actor-politician led party. He said the TVK does not have numbers and it has cobbled up support by bringing together parties that fought polls under the DMK-led alliance and opposed the TVK.
Pointing to support from Kamaraj, Udhayanidhi said AMMK leader TTV Dhinakaran had alleged horse-trading earlier. Kamaraj had been part of AMMK which was a constituent of the NDA, the ideological foe of TVK. Another NDA constituent AIADMK has seen an “almost vertical split, and one faction is supporting you.” The DMK leader also referred to social media and claimed people were asking ,”how to describe ruling party which has joined hands with corrupt forces; is this clean government?
Udhayanidhi said people had doubts on the government’s longevity as MLAs are borrowed. He accused Vijay of making false promises and diverting attention by levelling allegation of debt burden while borrowing during DMK regime was aimed at growth. “The government does not have majority and even basic political honesty and people have no confidence that the government will give good governance.”
Both Palaniswami and DMDK legislator Premalatha Vijayakanth made references to allegations of horse-trading.
Congress, IUML and VCK members were among those who spoke on the resolution supporting the government.
Vijay strikes back
Vijay asserted that while the government functioned with “horse-speed”, it does not engage in horse-trading.
The CM also alleged that DMK was rejected by the people and hence it may wish to insult TVK. On Udhayanidhi’s jibe that a majority of people rejected TVK, Vijay sarcastically asked if DMK won 234 seats and secured 100 per cent votes when it formed the government in 2006. The DMK formed the government at that time with Congress party’s support. The DMK is never going to understand the reality, he said and slammed the opposition party again over debt burden.
Meanwhile, Palaniswami claimed that the AIADMK MLAs who had cross-voted in favour of the TVK government in its floor test had fallen to the “lure” of cabinet posts. What they did was “unfair and illegal.
“All the party cadre including at the grassroot level have campaigned to secure the victory for the party to show its identity”, he said and alleged that the Velumani faction has “betrayed” the functionaries by supporting TVK in the assembly.
“Some have been lured by the promise of cabinet minister posts and they took the others also down the wrong path. This is illegal, against justice,”
Shanmugam defends his stance
Defending their move to support Vijay, Shanmugam said TVK and AIADMK have similar ideological agenda where they see the DMK as an “evil force,” and this reason prompted a section of the AIADMK MLAs to support the government in the floor test, Shanmugam claimed.
Speaking to reporters after the floor test in Tamil Nadu Assembly, Shanmugam rejected Palaniswami’s claim that they will get “ministerial berths” for supporting the Joseph Vijay-led TVK government.
“His (Palaniswami) claim is totally false and there is no truth in it. We supported the government since both AIADMK and the TVK have the same ideology; to oppose DMK,” Shanmugam said. “The AIADMK party was founded by the late M G Ramachandran only to uproot the DMK”.
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