Won't support Edappadi: TTV-backing MLAs

Tirunelveli: “We will enter Fort St. George if the Madras high court verdict in the case of our disqualification comes in favour of us and decide the next course of action if it is against us,” said the T.T.V Dhinakaran-supporting MLA, Thanga Tamilselvan, adding they were prepared to face any situation.

As the court verdict in the case of disqualification of 18 AIADMK legislators is expected soon, all the 18 MLAs along with four other legislators owing allegiance to Dhinakaran, have camped at a private resort owned by the former state law minister, Esakki Subbaiah in Courtallam, Tirunelveli district.

The MLAs’ are said to have reached there on Monday night. Seven of them, Thanga Tamilselvan, Palaniyappan, Kathirkamu, Subramanian, Mariappan, Kennedy and Sundarraj participated in the ‘Mahapushkaram’ festival at Papanasam and had a holy dip at river Thamirabarani.  

The MLAs led by Thanga Tamilselvan also performed a special yagam on the banks of Thamirabarani. The ritual was performed to weed out the traitors from the MGR-founded AIADMK, according to Thanga Tamilselvan. “We are hopeful of a favourable judgment and once it is pronounced, maximum number of AIADMK MLAs would come to our side to form a fresh Cabinet that will uphold the true spirit of AIADMK in the path laid by our “Amma” (Jayalalithaa),” he added.

Contrary to Thanga Tamilselvan’s claim that all the 18 MLAs facing disqualification along with four more MLAs supporting TTV Dhinakaran have come to participate in Mahapushkaram, only seven including him took part in the festival.  “The others are in their rooms,” he said even while hitting out at the Edappadi Palaniswami-led government’s indifference in making arrangements for the 13-day ‘Thamirabarani Mahapushkaram’.

Responding to a comment on wearing saffron dhoti and towel, Thanga Tamilselvan jovially said, he had worn the saffron dhotis as it was offered to him by his party-men. He categorically added that Dhinakaran would never forge alliance with any anti-secular parties. Irrespective of the way the verdict went, he added they (dissenting MLAs)’ would never join the EPS-OPS faction of the AIADMK.

Thanga Tamilselvan denied reports that the MLAs have been holed up at Courtallam to avoid being drawn by the Edappadi Palaniswami faction, adding, they had come to participate in the Mahapushkaram and would leave for Chennai on October 25. Significantly, no other MLA responded to the media and none of the MLAs other than Thanga Tamilselvan was reachable through phone.