It's a big day for AIADMK in Tamil Nadu. The state Assembly will see a floor test for the 2-day-old Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami. Palaniswami was made Chief Minister on Thursday after he submitted a list of MLAs supporting him to the Governor, but he now has the task of proving his majority on the floor of the TN Assembly.
TN Assembly has 234 legislators, but with Jayalalithaa's demise the number comes down to 233.
Overnight, MLA Arun Kumar from Coimbatore has dropped out of the Sasikala camp, and has announced that he will refrain from voting. Arun Kumar, who had been at the Kuvathur resort, said on Saturday morning that he will abstain.
Ailing DMK President M Karunanidhi is also likely to sit out on the floor test. Further, reports suggest that IUML's lone MLA will also boycott the vote of confidence.
So, this brings the number of the assembly down to 229 votes, excluding the Speaker. The magic number then comes down to 115 for Palaniswami.
But, if the IUML MLA comes to the assembly and then abstains, the available strength of the house is 230 and 116 is the magic number.