Assembly turns into a virtual war zone
CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu assembly descended into pandemonium on Saturday morning after the Opposition, led by DMK working president MK Stalin, led the charge against CM Edappadi Palaniswami and his floor test.
Both Speaker P Dhanapal and Stalin emerged from the House sporting torn shirts, while toppled chairs and broken microphones bore witness to a war zone-like situation inside Fort St George as MLAs traded barbs with equal venom.
Though the AIADMK government sailed through vote of confidence with a 122-11 margin, the proceedings had to be suspended twice after the DMK caused a ruckus.
The turmoil inside the House reminded onlookers of the chaos that ensued the last time the assembly witnessed a vote of confidence in 1988.
At the time, Janaki Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa were squaring off to decide who would become AIADMK chief in the wake of MGR’s death. The DMK had caused an uproar then too, leading to temporary suspension of the House. The assembly proceedings eventually ended with the police lathi charging MLAs inside the assembly.
“I am hurt and ashamed,” Speaker Dhanapal said after Sasikala appointed general secretary of AIADMK declaring the result of Saturday’s vote. “Who will I go to to complain about what was done to me?” he said, adding that the DMK had targeted him because he was an Adi Dravidar, one of Tamil Nadu’s main Dalit communities.
Prior to his statement, for about an hour, the House turned into a virtual war zone after the Speaker ordered the eviction of DMK members. Though 500 marshals arrived, the DMK legislators initially resisted them.
Soon, police officials led by the police commissioner arrived and held hectic consultations. The Speaker then instructed the marshals to physically evict the DMK members.
The DMK MLAs resisted the eviction, with Stalin having to be lifted by marshals and taken out of the House. The DMK leader then met Governor Rao at the Raj Bhavan and asked for a second
OPS resigns as CM. Sasikala elected head of the legislature party. Governor Rao accepts OPS’ resignation, but orders that he will continue until a new CM is elected
Plans to elect Sasikala as CM are postponed, as governor Rao says he would not be able to attend the swearing-in ceremony due to prior commitments, scheduling issues vote of confidence, saying that the Palaniswami government had no legitimacy as the vote was conducted without the Opposition.
Stalin subsequently went to Marina Beach to launch a protest. He, along with the other 89 DMK MLAs, were subsequently detained by police.
Journalists too had to deal with difficult conditions, with the audio transmission of the assembly proceedings being cut for those assembled at the Press Room at the Secretariat.
The mood in Chennai remains tense after what happened at the assembly. Though Palaniswami comfortably won the vote, he now has to contend with a more significant challenge than OPS, as Stalin made it clear that the anti-VK Sasikala campaign would now be led by the DMK.
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PANDEMONIUM Torn shirts, toppled tables & broken mikes bore testimony to the ruckus that ensued in the House during the floor test