19 AIADMK were taken to a resort in Puducherry after their meeting with the Governor.
Nineteen rebel lawmakers of Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK who wanted Chief Minister E Palaniswami sacked could stand to lose their seats. In a surprise move, Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal on Wednesday sent them disqualification notices for telling the Governor that the Chief Minister should go and pitched for his replacement.
The lawmakers, who were driven away to a resort in neighbouring Puducherry after their meeting with Governor CH Vidyasagar Rao on Tuesday, have been given a week to respond to the notice under the anti-defection law.
Citing corruption, misuse of official machinery and favouritism, these law makers - supporters of jailed party chief Sasikala and her nephew TTV Dhinakaran - had asked the Governor to order the Chief Minister to seek a vote of confidence.
The rebellion seen to be orchestrated by Dhinakaran to get back at Chief Minister Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, leaders of the two AIADMK factions who joined hands last week and decided to boot out their jailed party chief VK Sasikala and nephew Dhinakaran.
The lawmakers have alleged that by merging with the O Panneerselvam or OPS faction that voted against Mr Palaniswami in a trust vote in the assembly only six months ago, the Chief Minister had "forfeited the confidence of the people".
The Governor hasn't spoken his mind on how he would proceed but opposition leader MK Stalin of the DMK had also started demanding that Mr Palaniswami or EPS, must be told to seek another confidence vote in the state assembly.
After the merger, the AIADMK has 134 legislators in the 234-member assembly. If the 19 rebels vote against the government, the ruling party will be left with 115 MLAs. That is 2 short of a simple majority of 117 seats.
If the 19 lawmakers are disqualified, Chief Minister EPS wouldn't have to lose sleep over the trust vote.
S Rajendran, the AIADMK's chief whip, said the Speaker's notice followed his complaint.
"The 19 MLAs did not inform me that they are meeting Governor. They have acted against interest of the party," Mr Rajendran said. Under the Tamil Nadu assembly rules, he said, a lawmaker can be disqualified for anti-party activities under the anti-defection law.
But Sendoora Pandian, counsel for the Dhinakaran camp said they would let the Speaker's actions go unchallenged. "We would take it to the Supreme Court if any action is taken," he said.
The Dhinakaran camp also dropped hints that any move by the brand new EPS-OPS team on the assumption that only 19 lawmakers supported them could backfire. "We have many sleeper cells. Many more MLAs will join us," P Vetrivel told reporters. He also disputed that the lawmakers had violated any rules, insisting that the group only wanted a change of chief minister. "We have nowhere said we will vote against this government," he said.