AIADMK MLAs disqualification: This is what it means for Tamil Nadu and Palaniswami govt

Madras High Court today disqualified 18 AIADMK MLAs, whose membership were cancelled by Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker in September last year under anti-defection law after they met the Governor and expressed loss of confidence in Chief Minister K Palaniswami government in Tamil Nadu.

Speaker P Dhanapal had disqualified the MLAs for “voluntarily giving up their memberships” of AIADMK after they had withdrawn support to the E Palaniswami government and Dhinakaran had formed a separate party Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK).

Here is how the verdict will impact the Tamil nadu politics:
* The verdict is a huge setback to Dhinakaran, and a big booster for Chief Minister E Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam.


*Now by-elections will be held on the 18 seats represented by these disqualified MLAs.

* Though the MLAs have been disqualified, the elections would be interesting on these seats as the popularity of AIADMK government is on the decline, as seen in RK Nagar bypoll last year.

* For Palaniswami, the verdict means his government is safe now. With 20 vacant seats, the Tamil Nadu assembly's strength is down from 234 to 214. The ruling party, with support of 116 MLAs, is well above the half-way mark of 107.

*Apart from 18 disqualified MLAs seats, there are two other vacant seats- Tiruvarur, which was represented by M Karunanidhi and Thirupparankundram, whose MLA A K Bose died in August.

* For the disqualified lawmakers, it means another resort break as their leader Dhinakaran put them up at a property in Courtrallam, 600 km from capital Chennai.

*The disqualified MLAs may move to the Supreme Court