The Daily Fix: Why does Tamil Nadu still have only an acting (and often invisible) governor?

The Big Story: Missing in action

Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s absence from the political scene is still being keenly felt in the state that, more than half a year later, is still not sure who is leading it. The lack of clarity about an elected chief minister is not the only kind of leadership Tamil Nadu is missing. It has also gone without a full-time governor for more than a year now. And it shows.

Ever since two of the sparring factions of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, one led by Chief Minister Edapadi Palaniswami and the other by former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, settled their differences, the services of the acting governor have yet again been needed to administer various matters in the state.

Initially, Vidyasagar Rao, who is full-time governor of Maharashtra, was prompt in making his way to Chennai to administer the oath to Panneerselvam and other members of his faction who were now rejoining the government. Yet following that, the governor has once again been missing in action. Three sets of groups have written to him effectively saying that under the new terms, Palaniswami needs to prove his majority on the floor of the Assembly. The Congress demanded a floor test, the Opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam did as well and most importantly 19 Members of Legislative Assembly in the TTV Dinakaran camp said they were withdrawing support to the chief minister – a number that would be enough to see the government fall.

That is no trifling matter. It involves the question of whether the Tamil Nadu government is truly representative of the voters who cast their ballots in last year’s elections (which now seem like they were a generation ago). Palaniswami must be asked to prove his majority.

Instead, after accepting the letters, Rao has been quiet. In the meantime, resort politics has returned, with the 19 MLAs in the Dinakaran camp being sequestered in a hotel in Puducherry while other AIADMK leaders try to poach them. The acting governor’s reluctance to move quickly suggests tacit approval of this horse-trading.

It is in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s interests that the AIADMK government does not fall, and as the representative of Delhi in the state, Rao is presumably carrying out instructions from the capital. Yet he is constitutionally mandated to demand that the chief minister prove his majority within a few days after a floor test has been asked for. A recent judgment on this suggests that the floor test must happen within five days of the initial demand. Any delay on Rao’s part would display blatant partisanship, and count as a betrayal of Tamil voters.

Meanwhile, there is another question about the BJP’s governance skills that must be brought up: Why has it failed to appoint a full-time governor for a major state like Tamil Nadu for more than a year now?

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