As Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay faces a floor test in the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Wednesday, all eyes will be on the breakaway faction of the AIADMK; the 31 MLAs led by senior leaders S. P. Velumani and C Ve Shanmugam.
The ruling TVK has 107 MLAs, including the Speaker, who cannot vote. The party's Tirupattur MLA, R Seenivasa Sethupathy, won't be able to cast his vote following a High Court ruling in a case filed by his rival DMK candidate, who lost to the TVK legislator by one vote in the April 23 polls. The ruling party has the support of five Congress MLAs. Besides, CPI, CPI (M), VCK and IUML-- with two MLAs each, have already announced their outside support to the government.
However, the 31 AIADMK MLAs have already said they would vote in favour of TVK, bringing the total number of MLAs who support the Vijay government to over 150. This would ensure that Vijay passes the test with a solid majority.
AIADMK’s future
The floor test will also be a test for the AIADMK. The split could have repercussions for the party as the C.V. Shanmugam - S.P. Velumani faction voting in favour of Vijay is a violation of the whip issued by AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi Palaniswami.
AIADMK Rajya Sabha member I.S. Inpathurai posted a long post on his X page on Tuesday.
"The Anti-Defection Act under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution will definitely apply to any AIADMK MLA who acts in violation of the orders of the official whip appointed by AIADMK General Secretary and Legislative Party Leader Edappadi Palaniswami. If a member votes against the order of the party's official whip during a vote of confidence in the government in the legislature, abstains from voting, or remains neutral, it will be considered a party defection."
"Just because some people are acting as a separate team or claim to have the support of the majority of MLAs, they cannot appoint a whip separately. That is not legally valid," he said. He also cited a Supreme Court ruling, adding that the legal position is that any AIADMK MLA who acts in violation of the official whip's order will be disqualified under the Anti-Defection Act.
However, if 2/3rds of the MLAs of a party join another party, the defection law does not apply to them. AIADMK won 47 seats, and the Velumani-Shanmugan faction has over 31 MLAs, so Palaniswami cannot do much to them.
However, local media reports hint that Edappadi is likely to go to court to oppose the stance of CV Shanmugam's faction.
During the trust vote, Palaniswami reiterated that he was the General Secretary of AIADMK. “I came to this position with the proud support of the party executives. We faced the election under my leadership. We won 47 MLAs in this election by standing on the two-leaf symbol. Some people within the party are dissatisfied post the elections, and there are voices of opposition. All this is normal. But Chief Minister Vijay luring one section of the party leaders will lead to horse trading. Vijay mentioned clean governance and shouldn’t deviate from his policy. There are some differences of opinion in the AIADMK, and meeting those leaders is not fair. Don’t set a wrong precedent,” he added.