Chidambaram Slams Tamil Nadu Speaker, Govt Over Disqualification of TTV MLAs

New Delhi: Former Union minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram came down heavily on the Tamil Nadu government and Speaker for disqualifying 18 MLAs of the TTV Dinakaran camp on Monday.

In an early morning tweet on Tuesday, Chidambaram wrote: “Speaker's decision to disqualify MLAs blatantly partisan and to help minority TN Govt. Nothing can save sinking ship."

In direct reference to the Tamil Nadu government that has been juggling with numbers in the Assembly, Chidambaram said no such action can help a sinking ship.

Four days after Speaker P Dhanapal told the Madras High Court that action has begun to disqualify MLAs supporting Dinakaran, on Monday, he disqualified all the 18 MLAs under Schedule 10 of the Indian Constitution which deals with the anti-defection law.

With Monday’s move, the total strength of the AIADMK has now come down to 116.

Of the total 234 legislators, the number is now 231 excluding Jayalalithaa, Karunanidhi and the Speaker.

With 18 MLAs disqualified, the total number comes down to 213 and the halfway mark is 106. EPS-OPS merged faction has the support of 114 MLAs which is more than the required numbers to form the majority.

TTV camp, however, has decided its next course of action which is to move the Madras High Court. P Vetrivel, an MLA from the TTV camp said on Monday, "They are trying to show majority in a cross path. They have disqualified 18 MLAs. They have done this just in a belief that the majority count would increase. We will take a legal route and move the Court. We will surely dissolve this existing government."

Chidambaram has been critical of the AIADMK turmoil that has been going on for many months now. Earlier in August, the senior Congress leader had termed the developments as “low comedy turning into farce".

He had also sought the Governor’s intervention in the political crisis.

Meanwhile, DMK’s Stalin and the Tamil Nadu Congress has been demanding a floor test in the Assembly for Chief Minister E Palaniswami to prove a majority in the House.