LIVE: AIADMK rebel MLAs removed from posts; Kerala CM only tomorrow
Congress's decision on Kerala CM is expected later today
The four-day-old TVK government in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday (May 13) comfortably won the trust vote with the support of 25 rebel AIADMK MLAs amid DMK's walkout and Opposition allegations of horse-trading that were rejected by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay.
In its confidence-boosting win, TVK romped home by a 144:22 margin, with all the 22 naysayers being the AIADMK MLAs owing allegiance to party chief Edappadi K Palaniswami. The 25 other party MLAs, from the C Ve Shanmugam-SP Velumamni camp voted in favour of the government, as announced by them earlier.
Replying to discussions over the resolution moved by him seeking vote of confidence, Vijay said his government will always be secular and would continue to implement the welfare schemes launched by previous regimes.
While the main Opposition DMK, with 59 MLAs in the 234-member House, staged a walkout slamming the government, PMK with 4 MLAs and the lone member of the BJP abstained. The Vijay-led TVK government won the trust vote also due to the support from the Congress, VCK, Left, IUML and MLA S Kamaraj, who was expelled from AMMK for supporting TVK.
In an embarrassment, the split in the AIADMK came into the open during the trust vote proceedings as the faction led by party leaders Velumani-Shanmugam voted in favour of the government.
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