Chennai, May 13 (PTI) AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami has the right to appoint a whip for the Assembly, said MLA Thalavai Sundaram here on Wednesday.
His remarks came hours after rebel AIADMK leaders, led by MLAs C Ve Shanmugam and S P Velumani, asked Palaniswami to show a copy of the resolution of the meeting held to elect the whip.
As per the tenth schedule of the Constitution, Palaniswami has the right to appoint a whip, Sundaram said and showed a Constitution document for reference, while speaking to reporters.
“Just go through it,” he said, and added that it provides the provision to appoint whip by the party leader.
The split in the AIADMK came into the open during the trust vote proceedings as the faction of 25 MLAs led by party leaders Velumani-Shanmugam voted in favour of the Vijay-led government.
Palaniswami earlier in the day claimed that as general secretary of the party, he had the “right” to appoint the whip.
The whip, Agri SS Krishanmurthy, had informed all the MLAs through SMS, e-mail and registered post that the party will vote against the government in the floor test, he claimed.
Asked if he would seek legal action against those who did not vote by the party’s diktat, he said, “Wait and watch.” The cross-voting by 25 AIADMK rebel MLAs on Wednesday made the TVK government to significantly improve its tally to 144 in the Assembly. PTI SNR SNR KH
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.