DMK to bring no confidence motion in TN assembly against speaker

Coming down heavily upon Tamil Nadu speaker for giving decision in Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Palanisamy's favour, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) working president M.K. Stalin on Monday said his party will bring a no confidence motion against the speaker in the state assembly.

"We will bring a no confidence motion against the Tamil Nadu Assembly speaker. Just 34 DMK MLAs signatures are enough to remove the speaker," said Stalin while addressing a press conference here.

Showing strong resentment against Palanisamy being chosen as the Chief Minister, Stalin said had there been a secret ballot, the verdict would have not been the same.

"Edappadi K. Palanisamy would not have become the Chief Minister, if there was a secret ballot in the Tamil Nadu assembly," he said.

He further said there was no official announcement of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa's death.

"For Annadurai and MGR there were statements but not for her (Jayalalithaa). It is confusing," he said.

Earlier today, the DMK approached the Madras High Court demanding that Chief Minister E.K. Palaniswami's trust vote in the state assembly be declared null and void.

The Madras High Court is set to hear the petition against the Chief Minister on Tuesday.

Earlier, DMK working president MK Stalin also announced that his party would launch a state-wide hunger strike to protest against the "illegal" trust vote.

AIADMK's Palaniswami won a dramatic floor test two days ago, with the speaker throwing out opposition DMK members for violence and Congress legislators walking out of the House.