Chennai, Feb. 17 (Agencies): Members from the O. Panneerselvam faction met Speaker P. Dhanapal on Friday, a day ahead of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami's floor test in the legislative assembly.
MLAs K. Pandiarajan, S. Semmalai and Shanmuganthan, and senior leader C. Ponnaiyan, who met the Speaker, declined to disclose details of their conversation to the waiting media.
Panneerselvam-- who succeeded the late Jayalalithaa as Chief Minister after her death on December 5, then resigned but made a bid for the post -- has nine MLAs on his side.
Palaniswami, a loyalist of Jayalalithaa’s confidante V.K. Sasikala, will seek the vote of confidence at 11am on Saturday.
Sasikala put him up for the post after the Supreme Court upheld her conviction in a corruption case and ended her own hopes of taking over.
Governor Vidyasagar Rao and invited Palaniswami on Thursday to form the government, and asked him to seek a vote of confidence in the next 15 days.
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