BJP state president K. Annamalai on Friday said the party does not want to get into whether the Governor has the power to remove a Minister from the Cabinet.
Interacting with journalists in Coimbatore, he, however, said Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had twice or thrice approached the Governor seeking the removal of some Ministers when the AIADMK was in power earlier. But, he now says the Governor has no powers to remove a Minister from the Cabinet.
Mr. Annamalai contended that Governor R.N. Ravi had not acted against all the Ministers who had cases against them but chose to “dismiss” (since kept in abeyance) V. Senthilbalaji as he was “misusing his official position” in a case in which the Supreme Court had cleared the decks for an investigation against him. The BJP leader claimed that undue attention and interest was being shown in protecting Mr. Senthilbalaji.
Stating that the question of why Mr. Ravi chose to withdraw his earlier order should be addressed to the Governor himself, Mr. Annamalai said he also wanted to know what “compulsions” caused the Chief Minister to protect Mr. Senthilbalaji. He added that Mr. Senthilbalaji’s claim of cooperating with the Enforcement Directorate was just eyewash and that the Minister’s brother remained elusive.
