AIADMK MLAs were evicted en masse from the Assembly on Wednesday after they staged a dharna in front of the Speaker, reiterating Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K. Palaniswami’s request to allocate the seat, now occupied by former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, to AIADMK MLA R.B. Udhayakumar.
During Zero Hour, Mr. Palaniswami recalled the letters submitted to the Chair on behalf of the party, communicating the appointment of Mr. Udhayakumar as the party’s deputy floor leader and the expulsion of three MLAs — Mr. Panneerselvam, R. Vaithilingam and Paul Manoj Pandian — from the party.
But Speaker M. Appavu maintained that the Constitution provides only for the post of Leader of the Opposition in the House and not that of the deputy floor leader. Soon after, AIADMK members raised slogans in support of Mr. Palaniswami’s request. The Chair went on to cite the decisions of former Speaker P. Dhanapal (during the AIADMK government) in support of his position that it was the Speaker’s prerogative to decide on seat allocation to the members.
