AIADMK co-coordinator and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Thursday indicated that his party may not back the Telugu Desam Party sponsored no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.
The AIADMK with 37 MPs is the third largest party in the Lok Sabha.
Asked about the AIADMK’s stand on the first no-confidence motion against the BJP-led NDA government, Mr. Palaniswami avoided a direct response. Instead he said the motion was not being moved by the AIADMK but by the TDP against the non-announcement of special package for Andhra Pradesh and it in no way concerned Tamil Nadu.
Besides, the AIADMK co-coordinator said that when his party MPs had disrupted Parliament for 22 days to highlight the demand for the formation of the Cauvery Management Board earlier this year, no MP or political party from other States had supported the “just demand” of the AIADMK then.
The TDP’s motion is to highlight the problems concerning Andhra Pradesh and not Tamil Nadu, he added.
Meanwhile, in Chennai, DMK working president M.K. Stalin extended “moral support” to the no-confidence motion though his party had no representation in the Lok Sabha. Mr. Stalin called upon the ruling AIADMK to vote against the BJP government, saying that it had insulted the unanimous opinion of the Tamil Nadu people and thrown to the winds certain resolutions adopted in the Assembly.
“The Prime Minister had gone back on all the promises he made after assuming office. The Centre is depriving the States of their rights,” he told reporters.
A group of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MPs visited Tamil Nadu two days ago and sought the DMK’s support for the no-confidence motion on the ground that the Centre failed to announce the special package for the State after its reorganisation.
