Chennai: Tamil Nadu Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao has sought a report from the Assembly secretary regarding 'incidents' that were witnessed in the House when Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami won a trust vote.
Though Palaniswami comfortably won the vote of confidence in the state Assembly yesterday by Palaniswami won the trust vote by a 122-11 margin, the proceedings were marred by pandemonium that saw the Opposition DMK evicted by the Speaker.
The Congress too had walked out.
DMK's 88 members were ordered to be evicted by Speaker P Dhanapal after they indulged in a ruckus.
After that, Congress legislators had walked out in protest, dashing Panneerselvam's hopes.
Panneerselvam had alleged that the floor test was conducted after the eviction of Opposition members and went against democratic norms.
"Dharma has been momentarily eclipsed but it shall win finally," he had said, as per IANS.
The chaos of the Assembly proceedings had spilled over to Marina beach where DMK party chief MK Stalin had moved along with his party legislators to protest against the manner in which his MLAs were evicted from the state Assembly.
The Governor has sought "a factual report," on the entire proceedings from the time the House assembled at 11 am on February 18 and till it was adjourned sine die at 3.27 pm, sources told PTI.
The report shall be complete with all documentary and videographic evidence, it has been indicated by the Governor, they said.
Tamil Nadu legislative Assembly secretary AMP Jamaludeen has been asked to submit the report.
Rao will be releasing a brochure on the key events in Tamil Nadu beginning with late Jayalalithaa's hospitalisation on September 22, 2016 till he invited Palaniswami to form the government, sources said.
They said Rao was constrained to take up the initiative in view of doubts being expressed about Jayalalithaa's passing away in some quarters and claims over alleged delay in taking steps for forming a new government after Panneerselvam had resigned on February 5.
Meanwhile, Palaniswami, DMK and the dissident camp in the AIADMK led by O Pannerselvam today had separate meetings with Governor at the Raj Bhavan.
Palaniswami was accompanied by his cabinet colleagues including P Thangamani, SP Velumani, C Ve Shanmugam and D Jayakumar during his meeting with Rao which an official release described as a "courtesy call".
Palaniswami had a brief discussion with Rao, it said.
On the other hand, DMK appealed to Rao to "nullify" the vote of confidence won by Sasikala loyalist Palaniswami, alleging it was adopted by contravening the Assembly rules.
In a representation submitted to Rao, Stalin urged him to "nullify the entire proceedings" to "protect the spirit of democracy and the Constitution".
DMK Rajya Sabha members RS Bharathi, TKS Elangovan, and Tiruchi N Siva met Rao and submitted the representation.
Later, Panneerselvam also met Rao and requested him not to recognise the confidence motion adopted in the Assembly.
Panneerselvam, along with some of his supporters including MLA S Semmalai, met the Governor for about 20 minutes.
(With Agency inputs)
