Palanisamy Meets Governor , Asked for the chance to prove his majority in the legislature
CHENNAI: As the battle for chief ministership between O. Panneerselvam and Sasikala gets drawn out, all eyes are on Tamil Nadu’s Acting Governor Vidyasagar Rao. One of the options for Mr. Rao to end the battle is to convene a floor test and ask the contenders to prove the majority.
The Tamil Nadu Assembly has 235 members, with one nominated member. After the demise of Jayalalithaa, the strength is 234. The Speaker normally does not participate in motions or votes.
Here is how a floor test will proceed:
Confidence Motion
The Speaker will convene a special session of the House to discuss the confidence motion moved by a member.The floor leader, i.e., the leader of ruling party, moves a Motion of Confidence, seeking if the House has confidence in the government.
The Assembly has certain procedures to be followed for calling a motion. “A matter requiring the decision of the Assembly is brought forward by means of a motion proposed by a Member and a question stated or read out by the Speaker thereon,” states the Assembly procedure.
The motion will be proposed by a Member of the House, and seconded by another. Members can participate in the debate with prior approval from the Speaker. The Speaker will allot duration for each participating Member based on various criteria such as strength of the party.
Speaker will also allow Members to speak once again if he/she wishes to reply to a question.Division. On the conclusion of the debate, the Speaker will put the question to the vote. This is called Division. There are three ways to register the vote: voice vote, counting the heads or roll call method.
A voice vote is when the Speaker puts the motion to vote and decides it by voices. The Speaker would ask those in favour to say ‘Aye’ and those against say ‘No’. The Speaker would weigh both the voices and give a decision.
If members are unhappy with Speaker’s decision, another round of voice voting will take place. If still unsatisfied, the counting of heads will take place.The Tamil Nadu Assembly does not have electronic voting system like the Parliament. Hence, the Speaker would request the Members in favour of the motion and those against to separately stand up and would manually count them.
Alternatively, the Speaker can opt for roll call method.
The Speaker will first call the members, block by block, who are in favour of the motion and those who are against the motion to stand up, and the Secretary will mark their votes by calling out the names of each Member.
After recording the names of Members, and whether in favour or against the motion, the Speaker will call those who are neutral to the motion to stand up. The Secretary will mark their votes also.
Before the announcement of results, members can challenge the vote of a member on grounds such as personal, pecuniary or direct interest in the matter of the House. The Speaker’s decision would be final.
In case the House divides equally, the Speaker gets to cast his vote.
Within hours of being found guilty of corruption, Sasikala stepped on the gas to name a new leader for her party, the AIADMK. Edappadi K Palanisamy, 57, who is Minister of the Public Works Department, is the new chief of the ruling party of Tamil Nadu.
He has written to Governor C Vidyasagar Rao asking for the chance to prove his majority in the legislature; if successful, he would become Chief Minister. Ms Sasikala was hoping to take that job for herself, but the Supreme Court today sentenced her to four years in prison. This bars her from contesting an election for 10 years, which puts her public career on ice.
Mr Palanisamy is competing for Chief Minister with O Panneerselvam (“OPS”, who was expelled today by the AIADMK at a meeting of about 120 legislators in a resort near Chennai.
Mr Palaniswamy, whose loyalty to Ms Sasikala was one of his chief qualifications for his promotion, is a five-time member of the Tamil Nadu legislature; his stronghold is the Salem district.
He joined the AIADMK as a student leader and has held many important portfolios in the party and the government. Ms Sasikala and Mr Panneerselvam are both from the Thevar community, one of the state’s dominant castes, especially in the South.
This had caused some concern among the AIADMK. Mr Palanisamy is from the Gounder community dominant in the western part of the state.Ms Sasikala was reportedly keen to appoint him the Chief Minister after Ms Jayalalithaa died, but eventually went with Mr Panneerselvam.
