Does the governor of a state, have any right to deny the person chosen by a majority of MLAs to form the government?
The political turmoil in Tamil Nadu seems to have finally subsided, albeit temporarily. For now, Chief Minister E Palanisamy, of the AIADMK, seems to be in charge of affairs. Though it could well be a lull before another storm.
After Palanisamy won the trust vote in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, the opposition DMK petitioned the Madras High Court to cancel the vote. The high court adjourned the hearing of the petition till the week starting 27 February. In case the trust vote is cancelled, the focus will again shift to the behavior of the governor of Tamil Nadu vis-à-vis asking for a new trust vote and government continuation or formation.
So let’s take advantage of this relatively placid, if albeit transient, scenario and look back at what happened around the issue of chief minister ship of Tamil Nadu and the role played by the Governor C Vidyasagar Rao in the turmoil.
The governor accepted Pannerselvam's resignation and he was asked to continue as the care-taker chief minister of Tamil Nadu till a successor was appointed. The AIADMK wanted Sasikala to be the new chief minister and a stupendous majority of MLAs of the AIADMK elected her as the leader of the legislature party. None of this was illegal. At this point, Panneerselvam rebelled against the AIADMK party leadership and claimed that actually most AIADMK MLAs were secretly supportive of him.
