Advantage Panneerselvam as five more MPs join his camp

AIADMK has 37 MPs in Lok Sabha and 13 in Rajya Sabha

Support from AIADMK leaders to Chief Minister O Panneerselvam continues to grow on Sunday, with five more Members of Parliament (MPs) joining his camp.

On Sunday, Perambalur MP Marutharajaa, Vellore MP Senguttuvan, Thoothukudi MP Jeyasingh Thiyagaraj Natterji, Vilupuram MP S Rajendran and Rajya Sabha MP R Lakshmanan have extended their support to Panneerselvam till afternoon.

With this, Panneerselvam camp has received support from 10 MPs till now. Till yesterday evening, 5 MPs, 6 MLAs, including one State Minister Pandiarajan joined the Panneerselvam camp. Besides, two very senior AIADMK leaders are there in the Panneerselvam camp.

With the support to Panneerselvam increasing day-by-day, the Sasikala faction on Saturday said that their patients has limits and will wait till Sunday evening before considering other options.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, who has been demanding the Tamil Nadu Governor C Vidyasagar Rao to invite Sasikala to form the government, said on Twitter, "The TN Guv must decide CM issue by tomorrow otherwise a WP under Art 32 of the Constitution can be filed charging abetment of horse trading."

Sasikala has been alleging that the governor is deliberately delaying her swearing in for the benefit of Panneerselvam. Sasikala faction claims a majority in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.

AIADMK expelled R Lakshmanan, another MP, from the post of district secretary, Vizhupuram North. Lakshmanan is expected to join O Pannerselvam camp and that could be the reason for his expulsion.

Meanwhile, Sasikala is on her way to Kuvathur where the AIADMK MLAs are reportedly staying in a resort.