The decision to this effect was taken at the consultation meeting chaired by Dhinakaran with the disqualified legislators at Madurai on Friday.
A day after the Madras High Court upheld their disqualification by Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal under the anti-defection law, the 18 disqualified AIADMK MLAs decided to move the Supreme Court challenging the HC's verdict.
In the meantime, if by-elections are held to the 18 Assembly constituencies, the disqualified legislators will contest as candidates of the TTV Dhinakaran-led Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK).
The decision to this effect was taken at the consultation meeting chaired by Dhinakaran with the disqualified legislators at Madurai on Friday.
After the meeting, Thanga Tamilselvan, one of the disqualified MLA said that a unanimous decision was taken to challenge the order in the Supreme court to prove that Speaker's decision was wrong. "Speaker acted vindictively against us as we supported Dhinakaran. While he did not act against O Panneerselvam and other MLAs who voted against the party in the Assembly," he told reporters.
The disqualified legislator's decision to move the apex court would be a further relief for the ruling AIADMK which would better face the by-polls along with the next year's Lok Sabha polls. For the DMK, it will lose the opportunity at an attempt to returning to the power by sweeping the by-polls.
DMK and its allies have 97 MLAs while the ruling AIADMK has 112 members. Dhinakaran is the lone independent MLA but enjoys the support of four AIADMK MLAs. The Assembly's strength has come down from 234 members to 214 following the disqualification of 18 MLAs and two vacancies arising out of the demise of DMK chief M Karunanidhi and AIADMK leader AK Bose.
Dhinakaran, who normally interacts with the media, did not speak after the meeting. When asked whether Dhinakaran did not agree on the decision to appeal against the verdict as he was personally in favour of contesting the by-polls. He said that none of the disqualified MLAs was against the contesting the polls. "By any chance, the elections were announced for the 18 assembly seats, all of us will contest under the AMMK symbol and emerge victoriously," he said.
To condemn the state government, Tamilselvan said the AMMK would organise day-long fasts over a period of two months in the 18 constituencies of the disqualified MLAs and the remaining four constituencies where the AIADMK MLAs are now with AMMK. "It will start in Andipatti (Tamilselvan's constituency) on November 10 and end in Dr Radhakrishnan Nagar (Dhinakaran's seat)," he said.
Barring NG Parthiban, and P Vetrivel, all other disqualified MLAs and three sitting MLAs in support of Dhinakaran participated in the meeting.
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