CHENNAI: As many as 19 MLAs owing allegiance to beleaguered T.T.V. Dhinakaran on Tuesday told Tamil Nadu Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao that they “no longer had confidence” in Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and withdrew their support to him.

In identical letters submitted to Mr Rao, the MLAs, including the most vocal Thanga Tamilselvan and P. Vetrivel, also accused Mr Palaniswami of being “corrupt” and “encouraging corruption” at all levels. They also took a dig at the merger of EPS and OPS factions of the AIADMK.

“I hereby express my lack of confidence on Mr. Edappadi K Palaniswami and withdraw my earlier support given to him vide this communication. I hereby submit that I have not given up my membership of the AIADMK and I am only doing my duty as a conscious citizen to express the abuse and misuse of the Constitution provision,” the letter submitted by the MLAs said.

There was no formal word from Raj Bhavan about the meeting that came a day after EPS-OPS factions merged and O Panneerselvam was sworn in as the deputy chief minister. Soon after the meeting, Mr Rao left for Mumbai.

“Our intention is that there should be a trust vote. After that a new Chief Minister will be in place,” he said. Political observers feel that this is a “pressure tactic” adopted by the Dhinakaran faction to warn the EPS-OPS faction of the AIADMK not to take any punitive action against VK Sasikala.

The AIADMK had on Monday said it would soon convene General Council to formally remove Sasikala from the post of general secretary.

Constitutional experts also felt that the Governor cannot decide the question of Chief Minister, since the MLAs seem to have a problem only with the Chief Minister, but not with the government. They also said the only place to test the majority of a government is the Assembly and not Raj Bhavan or any other place.

The MLAs also told the Governor that the merger of EPS-OPS factions amounts to abuse of power and misusing of government machinery to cover up “their corrupt practices”, while noting that just a few weeks back Panneerselvam had called the government “corrupt” but has joined the same administration now. “Mr Edappadi Palaniswami is corrupt and encouraging corruption at several levels, which is also causing severe damage to the name of the party,” the MLAs said in their letter.

After the meeting, Tamilselvan told reporters that they were going to initiate efforts to bring in a new Chief Minister with the help of our supporting MLAs and claimed that 25 MLAs were on their side.