So just who is this man who gets to decide whether Saturday’s vote of confidence would be a secret ballot — as demanded by team O Panneerselvam — or an open floor test?
MGR handpicked him and made him contest the Sankagiri constituency (Reserved) in Salem district in 1977. He along with C Ponnaiyan, Panrutti S, Ramachandran and KA Sengottaiyan contested the Assembly elections for the first time after MGR launched the party. Dhanapal won the first elections. He won again from the same constituency in 1980 and 1984.
One year later, Jayalalithaa picked him as the Speaker. This was after Speaker D Jayakumar, another Jayalalithaa loyalist, resigned from his post. The government release did not give further details and had just maintained that the Speaker will discharge the duties while the office of the Speaker remained vacant. Six supporters of Jayakumar were also stripped of their posts. Reports suggested that Jayakumar's gala birthday celebrations had posters hailing Jayakumar when Jayalalithaa had warned her people that the posters should have only the pictures of Periyar, Annadurai, MGR and herself. So when the Speaker's post fell vacant, Dhanapal was elevated to the post.
The Panneerselvam faction met the Speaker on Friday, but did not reveal details of the meeting. The camp has always reiterated that there should be a closed ballot so that they can prove their majority.
On Saturday at 11 am, we would know if the trust vote would be an open one or a closed ballot. But it is likely the Speaker will go the open ballot way. And as a precedent, he can point to Uttarakhand, where there was an open floor test recently.
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