Tamil Nadu Floor Test: Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) MLA Srinivasa Sethupathi on Tuesday approached the Supreme Court after the Madras High Court refrained him from participating in confidence motions, no-confidence motions, and other proceedings in the assembly. The TVK leader registered victory from the Tiruppathur constituency by just one vote. The verdict came after DMK candidate Periyakaruppan filed a petition alleging postal ballot discrepancies.
In his complaint, the DMK candidate alleged that a postal ballot was wrongly transferred, leading to his defeat by the barest of margins. He further stated that he approached the high court after the Election Commission (EC) failed to act on his complaint. In his petition, Periyakaruppan has sought preservation of all the transfer records.
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While TVK's Sethupathi secured 83,375 votes, Periyakaruppan could only manage to get 83,374 votes, leading to his defeat by one vote. However, Periyakaruppan alleged postal ballot discrepancies and later approached the high court regarding this matter. The court has restrained Sethupathi from participating in any key proceedings in the assembly.
The Vijay-led party emerged as the single largest party by winning 108 of the total 234 seats; however, it fell short of the majority line. Vijay, with the help of smaller parties, including Congress, VCK, left forces, and IUML, managed to cross the magic number of 118 seats. However, his party will have to prove the majority in the floor test, expected to be conducted on Wednesday.
The TVK alliance currently has 121 MLAs, but Vijay won from two seats, leaving the tally to 120 for now. With Sethupathi now being not allowed to participate in the floor test, the problem has deepened for the newly formed party. However, it still has the support of 120 MLAs, two more than required to cross the majority line.