Chennai: For the first time in 44 years, the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Thursday will take up a no confidence motion against the Speaker P. Dhanapal moved by principal Opposition DMK for acting with “ulterior motive” during the trust vote sought by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palanisami on February 18.

The motion, moved by DMK MLAs E. V. Velu and K. Ponmudi, will be taken up for voting on Thursday, the penultimate day of the budget session of the Tamil Nadu Assembly. This is perhaps only the second time such a motion is being brought against the Speaker.

In 1972, the then DMK government brought a no confidence motion against its own Speaker Mathiazhagan after he sided with the then rebel leader M. G. Ramachandran.

After the question hour, Speaker P. Dhanapal is expected to read out the motion brought against him and it is likely to be accepted since only support of 35 MLAs are needed. The DMK, combined with Congress and IUML, has a support of 98
MLAs.

After the motion is accepted, Dhanapal would leave the House asking his deputy Pollachi Jayaraman to conduct the proceedings further. After the discussion, there will be voting on the motion and the Opposition members can insist on division if they are not satisfied with the voice vote.

“The motion will be deemed defeated if the Speaker does not get 51 per cent of votes of those present in the House,” a source said. The motion is likely to be defeated if the AIADMK MLAs do not cross-vote.

The DMK brought the notice against Dhanapal after accusing him of “acting with ulterior motive” during the trust vote sought by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palanisami on the floor of the Tamil Nadu Assembly on February 18.

While the Speaker alleged that he was mistreated because he belonged to Scheduled Caste, the DMK hit back accusing Mr Dhanapal of “deliberately harping on his community to malign” the party.