Palaniswami has won the floor test but might not stand the test of time

NEW DELHI: The Edappadi K Palaniswami government in Tamil Nadu has won the trust vote with 122 MLAs favouring him, when he needed support of 116 out of the total 234 MLAs to prove his majority.

But the wafer-thin margin will keep haunting the Palaniswami government. Below are five reasons why the new Tamil Nadu government will forever be on the edge.

1. It is believed that the Centre preferred Panneerselvam to Palaniswami. Sasikala's sudden coup upset all the calculations. But if Centre is indeed not happy with the change of power, Palaniswami may witness a huge setback sooner than later.

2. J. Jayalalithaa had strong control over the party and the government on account of her massive mass appeal. It is doubtful Sasikala will be able to wield that kind of control over the party and that too from a faraway jail.

3. Palaniswami is not from the Sasikala's group of trusted relatives who come from a particular area of Tamil Nadu, Mannargudi. Sasikala has brought her nephews TTV Dinakaran and S Venkatesh back into the party. Dinakaran has been named deputy general secretary, which indicates he will wield all controls in Sasikala's absence. The two power centres are hardly favourable for a government which has a thin majority.

4. Panneerselvam, who has been the chief minster once, will do everything he can to engineer a split. At least, he is an already available magnet for the disgruntled MLAs, and there would be a lot of them in coming days given the various divisions in the party.

5. The party now has a prominent caste divide of Gounder versus Thevar. Palaniswami is from the Gounder community, which does not get along with the community Sasikala and her relatives in the party belong to, the Thevars. Now that Thevars will have the backseat control of the party, it may not be possible for a Gounder to remain as CM for long.

Also read: Palaniswami wins trust vote: What happened in 10 points