Chaos reigned in the Tamil Nadu assembly today as Speaker P Dhanapal was heckled by the opposition DMK members, soon after Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami proposed the confidence motion. The Speaker adjourned the House till 3 pm. The Speaker also sent out the DMK MLAs creating ruckus, before adjourning the House.
Here are all the live updates.
3:30 pm: E Palanisamy wins trust vote
E Palanisamy, nominated to be the CM of Tamil Nadu by Sasikala, won the trust vote within minutes of the Assembly settling down to vote. The odds were always in favour of him.
3:25 pm: Stalin led out, voting begins
DMK leader Stalin was led out of the Assembly, following which the voting finally begun in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.
2:40 PM: According to the official AIADMK Twitter handle, DMK MLAs are staging a dharna.
2:30 PM:The News Minute reports, DMK MLAs who were evicted are sitting on the corridors just outside TN Assembly's door.
1:30 PM: Tamil Nadu Assembly speaker manhandled.
The confidence vote in Tamil Nadu took off to a rough start. First, the MLAs ended up squabbling with each other and soon after, they started breaking chairs inside the assembly. This happened after the Speaker rejected a plea to allow voting by secret ballots. The Speaker, shortly after the session started, adjourned the session till 1 pm
When the session resumed, Tamil Nadu assembly speaker P Dhanapal was manhandled by DMK MLAs. According to ANI, the MLAs went on a rampage, tearing official documents, tearing the Speaker's shirt. The Speaker then ordered the assembly police to evict DMK MLAs.
He also adjourned the session till 3pm.
1:30 PM:
1:20 PM: Here's the video of MLAs shoving each other.
#WATCH DMK MLAs scuffle with TN Assembly speaker, protesting DMK MLA Ku Ka Selvam sat on speaker chair #floortest (Jaya TV) pic.twitter.com/CkMQY9FfQx
— ANI (@ANI_news) February 18, 2017
11:57 AM:
11:07 AM: Chief Minister Edapaddi K.Palanisamy proposes the vote of confidence.
8:37 AM:It's only a matter of hours before one gets to know if VK Sasikala's proxy government that has just been sworn in Tamil Nadu is going to survive or collapse, writes G Pramod Kumar.