Tamil Nadu Government Formation LIVE Updates: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay on Tuesday met AIADMK rebels as EPS rival CV Shanmugam said his faction is “ready to back TVK”.
30 AIADMK MLAs are believed to be in the rebel camp that has questioned party chief Edappadi K Palaniswami’s leadership following the party’s performance in the April 23 assembly polls, in which it won only 47 of the 164 seats it contested.
Earlier, Vijay invoked the history of the British parliamentary system and stressed the importance of democratic traditions while addressing the Assembly after TVK MLA JCD Prabhakar was elected unopposed as the Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly.
Speaking in the House, Vijay recalled how Speakers in England during the monarchy era played a crucial role in communicating Parliament’s decisions to the King, often at great personal risk.
“The Speaker had the responsibility of informing the King whenever Parliament rejected his proposals. In those days, kings even had the power to order executions, and Speakers sometimes faced severe punishment for conveying Parliament’s stand,” Vijay said.
He also referred to the old parliamentary custom where newly elected Speakers would symbolically hesitate to occupy the chair and would be escorted to the seat by leaders of the House and opposition.
“That tradition continues even today as a symbol of democratic values,” the Chief Minister remarked.
Vijay said the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly must function as the “heart of democracy” and quoted former US President Abraham Lincoln’s famous definition of democracy as a government “of the people, by the people and for the people”.