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Dhinakaran dares TN CM Palaniswami to quit office, prove majority
Dhinakaran was sidelined by the ruling party after the Palaniswami and Panneerselvam camps merged following months of acrimony.
Sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran on Sunday asked Tamil Nadu chief minister K Palaniswami to resign from his post and convene a meeting of party MLAs and elect a new legislature party leader.
Dhinakaran, who is waging a running battle with Palaniswami and Panneerselvam for supremacy in the party, said the chief minister should meet governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao and tender his resignation and then convene a meeting of party legislators.
“Let Palaniswami say that the post of Chief Minister and the Cabinet which was given by ‘Chinnamma’ (VK Sasikala) is not necessary... let them choose anyone (as Legislature party leader)... we are not concerned,” he said.
Dhinakaran who two days ago said the government would fall within a week, said he was ready to send his loyalist MLAs to the meeting of legislators he was proposing, and added that “I am not responsible if they do not vote for you (Palaniswami).”
After the Palaniswami and Panneerselvam camps merged last month, Dhinakaran loyalist MLAs had petitioned the governor seeking Palaniswami’s ouster.
Opposition parties led by the DMK also urged Rao to order a floor test and ask Palaniswami to prove his majority.
The matter later went to the Madras high court, which has restrained the Assembly Speaker from holding a floor test till September 20.