Madras HC adjourns DMK’s plea challenging Palaniswami’s trust vote

The Madras high court adjourned on Wednesday the hearing on the opposition DMK party’s petition challenging Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami’s trust vote till next week.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) had approached the court on Monday, demanding that Palaniswami’s trust vote be declared null and void.

DMK working president MK Stalin had urged people in Tamil Nadu to raise their voice against the “injustice” during the trust vote on February 18 when lawmakers of his party were evicted following unruly scenes.

During Wednesday’s hearing, the HC asked petitioners to submit a video evidence of the ruckus in the state assembly.

On war path

Meanwhile, Stalin began a hunger strike to protest Palaniswami’s elevation as the CM.

Stalin was leading the hunger strike in Tiruchirapalli, around 350km from Chennai, on Wednesday. Other DMK leaders are protesting in several districts of Tamil Nadu.

AIADMK’s Palaniswami won a dramatic floor test, with the speaker throwing out opposition DMK members for violence and Congress legislators walking out of the House.

An FIR was later lodged against Stalin, his party MLAs, MPs and cadres for holding a protest at Marina beach against an alleged attack on him and his MLAs during the trust vote.

Palaniswami won by 122 votes to 11 after speaker P Dhanapal twice adjourned the House within a couple of hours when DMK legislators broke furniture and microphones, threw papers and even occupied his chair.

Palaniswami, 62, was propped up as CM by Jayalalithaa’s aide VK Sasikala after the Supreme Court sent her to jail in a 20-year-old corruption case. Former chief minister O Panneerselvam, with barely a handful of legislators in his camp, however, found support from the DMK, the Congress and the All India Muslim League.