Chennai: Tamil Nadu Lok Bhavan turned into the focal point of Tamil Nadu politics on Saturday as DMK, AIADMK and BJP made a beeline to governor R V Arlekar, seeking action against the TVK govt over allegations of horse-trading and other “unconstitutional activities”.DMK organising secretary R S Bharathi, accompanied by Nagercoil MLA S Austin and Rajya Sabha MP P Wilson, submitted a memorandum alleging that the ruling party had tried to lure Austin and Veppanahalli MLA P S Srinivasan to TVK.Soon after, senior AIADMK leaders Agri S S Krishnamurthy and MP I S Inbadurai submitted a similar memorandum, alleging TVK engineered MLAs’ resignations and subverted the electoral mandate. They sought an independent inquiry into the participation of private individuals in cabinet deliberations chaired by CM.Earlier, BJP state president Nainar Nagenthran and senior party leaders submitted a memorandum seeking a probe into the same issue. They sought an inquiry into higher education minister P Viswanathan’s alleged inappropriate behaviour with a minor girl and accused the ruling party of corruption, including collecting money for appointing public prosecutors.DMK sought to implicate the CM. Bharathi claimed Austin was offered a ministerial berth and assured that Vijay would campaign for him if he switched sides, while Srinivasan was offered ₹50 crore and a position in a welfare board. “We have submitted a detailed report on horse-trading with supporting documents,” Bharathi said, challenging the ruling party to disprove the allegations. He cited MDMK leader Vaiko’s statement that he would guarantee the victory of two MLAs if they resigned and contested the ensuing bypolls.Describing it as the “epitome of horse-trading”, Bharathi alleged that former minister and DMK MLA Anitha Radhakrishnan was arrested in a defamation case and kept in police custody for nearly five hours to intimidate him into joining TVK. Former AIADMK minister and recent TVK entrant C Vijayabaskar was involved in poaching legislators, he said. DMK objected to the alleged presence of Jhon Arockiasamy and Vishnu Reddy at a recent cabinet meeting, urging the governor to order legal action.Nagenthran also alleged a deterioration in law and order, claiming 151 sexual offences and a rise in murders since TVK assumed office.
