President‘s Rule speculation grows as TN govt formation crisis deepens

Speculation over the possibility of Presidentrsquos Rule in Tamil Nadu intensified as the political deadlock over government formation deepened amid allegations of horsetrading alleged forged support letters and missing MLAs With the term of the present Tamil Nadu government ending on May 10 uncertainty continues over who will form the next government in the StateGovernor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar has reportedly made it clear that no party will be invited to form the government unless it proves the support of at least 118 MLAs in the 234member AssemblyActorpolitician C Joseph Vijayrsquos Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam TVK which emerged as the singlelargest party in the April 23 Assembly elections by winning 108 seats has been attempting to secure outside support to cross the majority markThe DMKled alliance won 73 seats while the AIADMKled front secured 53 seatsTVK held talks with the Congress Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi VCK Communist Party of India CPI and CPIMThe Congress extended support through its five MLAs taking TVKrsquos tally to 113 CPI and CPIM which have two MLAs each later announced unconditional outside support to a Vijayled government pushing the number to 117However Vijay may have to resign from one of the two constituencies he won reducing the effective strength once again and leaving TVK short of the required majorityThough VCK support is expected uncertainty continues over the final numbers The crisis took a dramatic turn late on Friday night when AMMK General Secretary TTV Dhinakaran rushed to Raj Bhavan and met Governor Arlekar alleging largescale horsetrading by TVK leadersThe controversy revolved around AMMKbacked MLA S Kamaraj who was reportedly shown as supporting TVKDhinakaran alleged that forged support letters were sent to the Governor through WhatsApp and claimed Kamaraj had gone ldquomissingrdquoSoon after Kamaraj himself appeared before the media along with Dhinakaran outside Raj Bhavan late on Friday night Kamaraj denied officially supporting TVK and alleged misuse of his signatureDhinakaran later filed a police complaint seeking action against those responsible for the alleged forgeryTVK however rejected the allegations and released a video purportedly showing Kamaraj voluntarily signing a support letter in favour of the partyTVK accused Dhinakaran of spreading misinformation to stall the formation of a Vijayled governmentPolitical observers say that if the deadlock continues and allegations of horsetrading escalate further the Governor could submit a report to the Centre citing an extraordinary constitutional situation in Tamil Nadu potentially paving the way for Presidentrsquos RuleWith less than 48 hours left before the present governmentrsquos term expires hectic political negotiations are continuing in Chennai amid mounting uncertainty over the Statersquos next governmentThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever