19.2.17

Chaos in TN Assembly

The Palaniswami government won the trust vote but not before five hours of high drama in the Tamil Nadu assembly. DMK members created a ruckus, stood on tables, flung chairs, tore up papers and poured water on marshals called to evict them. In the melee, the speaker's table was overturned, his mic was broken and DMK members sat on his chair after the speaker left. After the DMK members were forcefully evicted by more than 100 marshals, and eight Congress and one IUML members walked out in protest, the motion of confidence was put to vote. Chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami's ministry won with 122 votes, while rebel leader O Panneerselvam mustered the support of 11 MLAs.

In the morning, when speaker P Dhanapal asked the chief minister to move the confidence to vote, unruly scenes were witnessed as the speaker refused to heed to a key demand of the DMK -a secret ballot that it argued would truly reflect public opinion since the AIADMK MLAs had been sequestered at a resort for nearly 10 days. Leader of the opposition M K Stalin also pleaded that the motion be taken up at a later date.

DMK president M Karunanidhi did not attend the assembly . AIADMK MLA P R G Arunkumar from Coimbatore North abstained from voting.

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