Tamil Nadu Politics has been a whirlwind from the time of the death of CM J. Jayalalithaa. There has been a war going on between O. Panneerselvam and Sasikala Natarajan. Amidst this drama, Sasikala was convicted in the 21 year old disproportionate properties case and has been sent to jail for 4 years. Before surrendering, Chinnamma appointed Edappadi Palaniswami as a CM candidate. The Governor Vidya Sagar then appointed him as CM on floor test.
Now what many of them don’t know what a floor test is. In the Tamil Nadu legislature, there are a total of 233 members, this means 233 votes. The house, in general, has 234 votes but after Jayalalithaa passed away her seat has been vacant and limits it to 233 votes. In the floor test, the present CM E.K. Palaniswami needs half of 233 votes, which means he needs 117 votes to win the trust motion. As of now, Palaniswami claims that he has the support of 124 Tamil Nadu lawmakers. This 124 member does not include all AIADMK MLA’s as 11 of them voted against Palaniswami. These 11 rebels belong to the O. Panneerselvam camp and support him.
Also, 98 MLA’s from DMK of the opposition said that they are not in favor of Palaniswami. The total number including 11 AIADMK MLA’s makes it 109 against Palaniswami. If Palaniswami gets 117 votes he would remain as the Chief Minister. But as the margin is very low the chances of wobbling is high and stakes might change at any time. If another 8 members of AIADMK join the 11 members and vote against Palaniswami it would mean that he will not be able to continue as the CM. These statistics might also change if opposition lawmakers are not present in the house wherein Palaniswami can continue in his post.
With the floor test beginning today, the AIADMK requested for a secret ballot as those who want to vote against Palaniswami are too afraid to give a voice vote which generally is the process.
