india

Updated: Jun 28, 2019 17:48 IST

Tamil Nadu’s main opposition party DMK’s president MK Stalin on Friday said the party was not going ahead with the no-confidence motion it had tabled against Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal. The motion was slated to be taken up in the Assembly for discussion and voting was due on July 1.

“The context and situation in which we gave notice for the no-confidence motion does not exist anymore. We gave the notice for it as the political situation had warranted it. We have also informed the Speaker through a letter that we are not pressing (ahead) with it,” Stalin, also Leader of the Opposition in the House, told the media outside the Assembly premises after the session was adjourned for the day.

The session which commenced on Friday, will last till July end and the DMK is planning to raise several issues to put the AIADMK in the dock. The party has opposed the ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ scheme.

The DMK president backing down on this comes within a week of enthusing the DMK cadre that a regime change in the state was imminent even without elections. Addressing a massive protest against the AIADMK government whom he held responsible for the unprecedented water crisis in the city on Monday, Stalin had claimed that the ministers and ruling party functionaries were rattled at facing the no-trust motion.

“Even without elections, a change of government is possible and the DMK will soon take the reins of power. What is more important than changing the Speaker is dislodging the Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS),” he had said.

Stalin even lampooned them for performing yagnas (sacrificial fires), saying it was not to please the rain gods but to save their seats.

The DMK had served a notice for the no-confidence motion on May 1, in the wake of the Speaker initiating the process of disqualifying three dissident AIADMK MLAs by issuing show cause notices.

But that was before the bypoll for 22 Assembly seats, held together with the Lok Sabha elections, when the EPS government was in a precarious position. Though the DMK swept the LS polls, it could only win 13 of the 22 seats. And the AIADMK has retained majority even without the dissidents and the fence sitting three independents who had won on the party ticket.

The party position as of now in the 234-member house is: AIADMK – 123 (including 3 dissidents and three independents), DMK – 100, Cong. – 7, IUML – 1, Independent (TTV Dhinakaran) – 1. The Congress and IUML are allies of the DMK.

The AIADMK has been dismissive of Stalin’s chief ministerial ambitions. “Stalin is day dreaming,” has been the response of EPS and his ministerial colleagues and party veterans like Jayakumar and others on the DMK chief’s claims to topple the government.

Analysts, while explaining that the DMK’s somersault was dictated by realpolitik as the party was short of numbers to dislodge the EPS government, however, said this was a setback for Stalin.

“Thus far the DMK has not been able to split the AIADMK and the bypoll results have poured cold water on its hopes of dethroning the AIADMK regime. Unless the DMK is able to breach the AIADMK and ensure defection from the ruling party’s ranks, the regime change is not a possibility. Though Stalin has been harping about this every now and then, the government continues in office with the blessing of the BJP at the Centre. As such, claims of toppling the government could only serve the purpose of keeping the DMK cadre in good humour. And now, Stalin has been forced to eat his words,” said Aazhi Senthilnathan, a political analyst.