The TTV Dinakaran camp of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Thursday suffered a loss as one of its supporters, Cumbun MLA ST Jakkaiyan, defected to the Edappadi Palaniswami camp, IANS reported. This shift came hours before Dinakaran and his supporters met Tamil Nadu Governor C Vidyasagar Rao demanding that Chief Minister Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam be removed.

Jakkaiyan on Thursday met Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker Dhanpal and informed him that he was supporting Palaniswami as he did not want the problems within the AIADMK to benefit Opposition party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, IANS reported. “By exploiting the family problems of AIADMK, the DMK was trying to bring harm to the government. We have to go by the majority view,” he said.

Jakkaiyan was one of the 19 MLAs who had met the governor on August 22 claiming that they had lost confidence in Palaniswami. The MLAs had also demanded a floor test in the Assembly.

“Jakkaiyan had asked me for party posts and then today morning he went and extended his support to Edappadi Palaniswami,” Dinakaran said, according to The News Minute. “So, you know what would have happened.”

Meeting with the governor

Dinakaran said his delegation had asked the governor to quickly act on the petition that they had filed asking Palaniswami to be removed from the post of chief minister.

“We all saw in the MLA meeting held on September 5 that Edappadi Palaniswamai does not have 117 MLAs,” Dinakaran told the reporters. “We requested the governor not to allow horse trading and Edappadi government should be asked to show majority.”

He said that Rao had assured them that he is closely watching political developments in the state and that he would soon make a decision.