Coimbatore: After the Supreme court ordered an interim stay on the disqualification notice issued to three AIADMK MLAs by Tamilnadu Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal, DMK president M K Stalin described the decision as a big blow to the ruling party in the State.
Speaking at a campaign for DMK candidate Pongalur N Palanisamy who is contesting from the Sulur assembly segment, Stalin said AIADMK would not be able to save its government after this. The ruling party had petitioned the Speaker to disqualify the three MLAs on the pretext that they were supporting the AMMK leader TTV Dhinakaran but had in fact done so to save the government.
He further asserted that once the results of by elections to the 22 seats were declared on 23 May, the numbers would favour his party and that DMK would form the government in Tamilnadu.
The DMK and MDMK had opposed any possible disqualification of the three MLAs.
In the 30 April notice to the three MLAs – V T Kalaiselvan, E Rathinasabapathy and A Prabhu (Kallakurichi) – Speaker Dhanapal had attached evidence to support his claim that they had supported AMMK MLA T T V Dhinakaran. They were given a week’s time to respond to the notice.
However, two of the three MLAs – V T Kalaiselvan and E Rathinasabapathy – had taken the case to the Supreme Court last Friday, seeking an order to stop the Speaker from disqualifying them. Following this the apex court ordered an interim stay and issued notice to the Speaker to respond to the petition filed by the MLAs.
The by-elections for four assembly constituencies – Sulur, Ottapidaram, Aravakurichi and Thiruparankundram will be held on 19 May.