DMK decides to ‘wait and watch’ till October 4

The decision to cancel the meeting was conveyed to the legislators who had been asked to stay put in Chennai soon after the orders were passed by the court in this regard. 

The DMK’s hopes on the court to concede the prayer of the 18 disqualified MLAs that owe their allegiance to the sacked AIADMK deputy general secretary TTV Dinakaran to set aside the Speaker’s order did not materialise though.

“We were of the impression that the court might offer an interim relief. It did not happen. But the court had extended the stay until October 4 and listed the matter for final hearing on that day. That’s why we’ve decided to call of our Wednesday meeting of our party MLAs. If we’ve had a meeting it would have seemed like a knee-jerk reaction. We have faith in the court as much as the other aggrieved party in this case,” a party source said. “It appeared that they might defy the court, and we were planning to approach the people if it came to that. However, the submissions from the ruling dispensation suggest that they were willing to comply with if the stay was extended,” the source added. 

Being firm to sustain the government which was reduced to a minority, a desperate EPS regime was accused of changing the composition of the House by disqualifying the dissidents to seal the magic number 108 in a trust vote. 

Speculations were rife that the ruling government led by the Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami would go for a floor test sometime later this week. 

DMK which got the whiff of this had convened an emergency meeting of all its MLAs on Tuesday and deliberated upon its future course if the EPS regime sought a trust vote. 

Leader of Opposition MK Stalin, who chaired the meeting on Tuesday evening at Anna Arivalayam, revealed to the media that they would meet again on Wednesday evening to deliberate upon the outcome of the court’s ruling in the case pertaining to floor test. 

TNCC chief Su Thirunavukkarasar told the media that his party would take a decision on mass resignation at an appropriate time, while interacting with media persons after a meeting of Congress legislators. 

The Congress Legislature Party meeting took place in Sathyamurhty Bhavan where decisions taken by the DMK were discussed. The TNCC chief, who did not discount the idea of mass resignation, suggested that his party would take a ‘suitable’ decision as and when required.