Tamil Nadu : People will decide whether the Trust vote was valid, says Paneerselvam

"We tried for a secret ballot, but despite our efforts it was not possible,” media reports quoted him as saying.

"Only the people will decide if this Trust vote was valid."

Panneerselvam criticised the manner in which the Opposition DMK had been evicted from the House by the Speaker, who rejected the demand for secret ballots.

A close aide of AIADMK' late matriarch and former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, Paneerselvam leads the rebel camp within the AIADMK that first opposed VK Sasikala becoming Chief Minister and then took on her hand-picked man Palaniswamy after she was sentenced to jail.

Paneerselvam, who had all along been claiming that many legislators said to be belonging to the Palaniswamy camp were actually with him,  said that the MLAs who had 'betrayed' would now have to answer to the people.

“Whether MLAs will be able to enter their constituencies after this is the question. The voters have been betrayed by MLAs."

When Amma (Jayalalithaa) had expelled the members, she had said that she would never allow them into the party. This dispensation does not represent Amma,” the former CM claimed.

He said that the family which Jayalalithaa had thrown out was now back in the picture thanks to Sasikala’s intervention. .

AIADMK MLA Pandiarajan, who is in the OPS camp, said that if a secret ballot had been held, MLAs who voted for E Palanisamy would have voted against him.

He warned that even if the battle had been lost, the crusade is still on.

“The Dharma Yudh will continue. The issue will again come up in the Assembly again”.

E Palanisamy won the trust vote after 122 AIADMK MLAs voted in his favour.

11 MLAs who had joined the OPS camp voted 'no confidence'.

With DMK and Congress absent from the House, the Palanisamy camp romped home  in the 235-member Tamil Nadu Assembly.

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