The four-day old TVK government in Tamil Nadu crossed a major hurdle on Wednesday, winning a confidence-boosting trust vote by a 144:22 margin amid a walkout by the principal opposition party DMK and a divided AIADMK whose one faction supported the C Joseph Vijay-led government.
In the 234-member House, 118 is the simple majority mark.
AIADMK MLAs backing chief Edappadi K Palaniswami voted against the government.
The BJP, with its lone MLA, stayed neutral while another NDA constituent, the PMK (4), also abstained.
Amidst questions of its stability in the wake of a lack of a majority, the win gives the maiden TVK government the much-needed confidence to settle down and get on with delivery of governance, even as the ministers, including CM Vijay, are yet to be allotted portfolios.
For the next six months, another floor test may not be held.
The Vijay-led TVK government won the trust vote with support from the Congress, VCK, Left, AMMK and the AIADMK rebel faction led by leaders SP Velumani and C Ve Shanmugam.
As soon as the House convened at 9.30 am, CM Vijay moved a vote of confidence resolution, and the legislators belonging to all parties spoke on the motion.
Speaker JCD Prabhakar, after conducting division-wise voting, declared that the resolution moved by the chief minister seeking vote of confidence of the Assembly has won, and as many as 144 MLAs voted with the government. He said 22 MLAs opposed and five took a neutral stand.
The main opposition DMK, which has a strength of 59 MLAs, staged a walk out before voting was taken up on the resolution.
MLA S Kamaraj, expelled from the TTV Dhinakaran-led AMMK, an NDA constituent, was among those who voted in favour of the government.
Replying to discussions over the resolution moved by him seeking vote of confidence, Vijay said his government will always be secular and would continue to implement the welfare schemes launched by previous regimes.
While the government functioned with "horse-speed", it does not engage in horse-trading, he asserted.
The floor test was held in the House in lines with Governor RV Arlekar's directions to hold it on or before May 13, after Vijay ensured his maiden government with the outside support of CPI, CPI (M), VCK and IUML.
The ruling TVK has an overall strength of 107, including the Speaker who did not vote. Further, a High Court ruling had barred the party's Tirupattur MLA, R Seenivasa Sethupathy from voting in such floor tests following a case filed by his rival DMK candidate, who lost to the TVK legislator by one vote in the April 23 polls. The DMK leader has sought recounting of votes.
The ruling party has already secured the support of five Congress MLAs for its government. Besides, CPI, CPI (M), VCK and IUML-- with two MLAs each, had also last week announced their outside support to theTVK government.
Further, a section of AIADMK MLAs, about 30 of them who are led by senior leaders Velumani and Shanmugam and opposed to party chief Palaniswami, have announced support to the government.
Those AIADMK MLAs owing allegiance to Palaniswami had already said that they will vote against the government and warned that anti-defection would apply to party MLAs going against the diktat.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court stayed a Madras High Court order that had barred TVK MLA R Sreenivasa Sethupathi from participating in the floor test.
“This is atrocious to say the least. The high court says the remedy is election petition but still entertains the Article 226 petition,” a bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and Vijay Bishnoi observed while hearing the plea.
Article 226 of the Constitution deals with the powers of high courts to issue writs.
The apex court also stayed the proceedings pending before the high court in the matter.
Sethupathi had won the Tiruppattur Assembly constituency in Sivagangai district by a margin of just one vote against DMK leader and former minister K R Periakaruppan.
The Supreme Court granted two weeks’ time to Periakaruppan and other respondents to file their counter affidavit on Sethupathi’s plea challenging the high court’s interim order restraining him from participating in any floor test, confidence motion, no-confidence motion, trust vote, or other proceedings testing the numerical strength of the House.