AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami said on Wednesday that no talks were held with any party other than the alliance partners to form a government after the Assembly election threw up a fractured mandate.

Countering rebel leader C.Ve. Shanmugam’s claim, he alleged that the rebel AIADMK MLAs, including some former Ministers, voted in favour of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam government’s motion of confidence driven by “a desire for ministerial positions”.

After 25 AIADMK MLAs voted for the motion, Mr. Palaniswami  addressed reporters outside the Assembly. He said the support of the rebel AIADMK MLAs was secured with the promise of six berths in the Cabinet and the chairpersonship of various boards.

“The AIADMK MLAs convened and elected me as the Legislature Party leader. Then, officials, including the whip, were appointed. Former Minister Agri S.S. Krishnamurthy was appointed the whip. He asked all the AIADMK MLAs to vote against the motion. However, the TVK  government promised the AIADMK members six Ministries and 10 posts of chairperson of boards. On that basis, they supported the motion,” he said.

“Some former Ministers, in their desire to become Ministers, have led the fellow MLAs astray. This is against law and justice. When the Chief Minister claims he will provide a clean government, it must be clean in all aspects. There are differences of opinion in a party. How is it fair to visit the homes of one faction because of it? This is a bad precedent,” the former Chief Minister remarked.

Asked whether talks had been held with the DMK to form a government, Mr. Palaniswami said, “No talks were held with any party other than the alliance partners. Talks were certainly not held with the DMK.”

As for the claim that the rebel group has 25 members, he said, “One must look at who holds control of the party. Court rulings are aligned with this principle.”

He said that while selecting candidates for the election, he went by the recommendations of the district secretaries.

Mr. Palaniswami pointed out that the TVK has only 106 MLAs and nearly 66% of the electors had voted against the party.