With OPS lacking numbers, TN Guv to invite Palanisamy to form govt

Hyderabad: Tamil Nadu Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao will invite AIADMK Legislature Party leader Edappadi K Palanisamy to form a government on Thursday, sources said. The swearing-in could be held in the evening.

Sources said Ch Vidyasagar Rao would give Palanisamy between three days and a week to prove his majority in the Assembly. Sources said the Governor’s office had verified the signatures of the 124 legislators, whose letters of support Palanisamy had submitted to Vidyasagar Rao earlier in the day for the second time.

Sources said the government could summon the Assembly, which had been adjourned sine die after a special session to pass the legislation on Jallikattu and had not yet been prorogued.

Sources said the Governor was of the view that the whole world knew that Palanisamy had the numbers on his side. The Governor formed the view that he would go by the time-tested tradition of inviting the leader claiming majority support.

He was of the view that the advice of Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi to hold a joint floor test to determine the strength of the two sides did not arise in this case, sources said.

Vidyasagar Rao’s stand was that no Governor had called for such a test, which had only been ordered by the Supreme Court, sources said.

Panneerselvam’s numbers appeared weak
On Wednesday evening, the Governor met both claimants, Palanisamy and caretaker Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam.

Leader of AIADMK legislature party, Palanisamy met Rao for the second time in as many days and urged him to invite him to form government.

Panneerselvam and other senior leaders who have shifted to his camp met the Governor and requested that he be allowed to prove his majority on the floor of the Tamil Nadu Assembly. Of the options open to him, it appeared that on the strength of numbers, the Governor had to choose Palanisamy. Panneerselvam’s numbers appeared very weak in comparison.