EPS, OPS ready for trust vote today

​Chennai: A day before newly-anointed Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami's government faces a vote of confidence in the Assembly to prove its majority, various factions are in last minute preparations to win their sides.

Tamil Nadu Speaker P Dhanapal said the vote of confidence would be taken at 11am on Saturday. The Speaker has the option to do either one of the following—ask the members to stand for the vote count, or order an oral vote, secret ballot or electronic ballot.

While Palaniswami, who took over the government along with 30 ministers on Thursday, was expected to sail through the floor test, former chief minister O Panneerselvam, who raised a revolt against the AIADMK leadership, is preparing to topple the EPS government.

Meanwhile, DMK and Congress parties have signalled that they will vote against Palaniswami. Palaniswami claims to have the support of 123 legislators, compared with Panneerselvam’s 11 MLAs in the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly.

On Friday, Mylapore MLA R Nataraj confirmed that he would vote against the Palaniswami government. The Election Commission on Friday issued a notice to V K Sasikala based on a petition filed by Rajya Sabha MP V Maitreyan and others challenging the nomination of Sasikala as general secretary.

Meanwhile, E Madusudhanan, who joined the Panneerselvam camp last week, on Friday announced that he had “expelled 13 members” of the party, including Sasikala, Palaniswami and Dinakaran.