With the death of DMK leader Karunanidhi (Thiruvarur) in August and of another leader’s death A K Bose (Thiruparankundram), 2 seats were already vacant in the 235 assembly house. Now, with the Madras High Court upholding the judgment of disqualification of 18 MLAs, the count has come up to 20. Justice M Sathyanarayanan of the Madras High Court, who was appointed by the Supreme Court, has passed the judgment on 25 October and has backed the decision of court’s former chief justice Indira Banerjee.
John Arokiasamy , a political observer was quoted by IANS as saying, “The Madras High Court on Thursday upheld the Tamil Nadu Speaker P. Dhanapal’s decision to disqualify 18 dissident AIADMK legislators, taking the total of vacant seats to 20. If the bypolls are held by the Election Commission then it will be a sort of mini-assembly elections”.
He further said, “The Election Commission cannot postpone holding by-polls for 20 constituencies leaving. The people need their representatives in the assembly with more than three years left for the assembly polls”.
If the by-polls are held it may prove to be advantageous for DMK for if it wins 10 seats the AIADMK government would come into trouble.
“The bypolls if held for 20 seats will be like a mini assembly poll. It will put to test the leadership of Palaniswami, Stalin and Dhinakaran,” Mr Arokiasamy said.
However, another political analyst S. Raveenthran Thuraiswamy is of different view. He was quoted by IANS as saying, “In my view the bypolls will be held along with the Lok Sabha polls. The split in AIADMK is between two major castes-Gounder and Devars. The Devar community will back Dhinakaran while the Gounder will back Palaniswami. The DMK may not get any advantage but may lose the votes of these two castes”.
Meanwhile, DMK leader, M. K Stalin has stated that the by-polls for the 20 assembly constituencies should be held immediately.
In the 235-member Assembly, the AIADMK has 115 members followed by the DMK with 88, Congress eight, one of the IUML, one Independent, the Speaker and 20 vacant seats (18 disqualified and two dead). Besides, there is a nominated member.
On the other hand Party leader of newly formed Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) party, TTV Dhinakaran told reporters, “We will discuss with the 18 legislators and decide on the future course of action.” He said it was “an experience for us”.
“If the 18 disqualified legislators decide to go on appeal against the decision, then we will go for an appeal,” Mr Dhinakaran said.
Meanwhile, the advocate for 18 disqualified legislators N. Raja Senthoor Pandian has said there are three options — appeal to the Supreme Court, face by-polls or prefer an appeal and face the by-polls.